THE  BUSINESS  OF  HOME  MANAGEMENT 


THE   BUSINESS  OF 
HOME  MANAGEMENT 

(THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  DOMESTIC  ENGINEERING) 
BY 

MARY  PATTISON 


NEW  YORK 

ROBERT  M.  McBRIDE  &  CO. 

1918  " 


COPYRIGHT,    1915,   BY 

Mss.  FRANK  A.  PATTISON 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America. 


WRITTEN   IN   THE  INTEREST   OP 

THE   CLUB   WOMEN   OF   NEW   JERSEY 

and 
DEDICATED 

TO  THE  VERY  BEST  HUSBAND  IN  THE 
WORLD,  WHO  HAS  THROUGH  HIS  UNSELFISH 
ATTITUDE  AND  GENEROUS  DISPOSITION 
MADE  POSSIBLE  THE  ACCOMPLISHMENT  OP 
WHATEVER  IS  CONTAINED  IN  THESE  PAGES 


PREFACE 

This  book  is  presented  not  for  its  literary  value,  but  as  a 
record  and  result  of  the  Housekeeping  Experiments  conducted 
at  Colonia. 

It  is  a  sort  of  report  to  the  public  for  the  public's  interest, 
and  also  a  contradiction  to  the  sometimes  justifiable  criticism 
that  the  work  of  Club  Women  is  apt  to  be  dilettante,  and  their 
plans  unmatured.  This  undertaking  was  carried  on,  as  designed 
by,  for,  and  with,  the  Club  Women  of  New  Jersey.  The 
original  intent  being,  to  rouse  the  thought  of  the  women  of  the 
State  to  possibilities  of  greater  housekeeping — returns  to  purse 
— personality — and  public  progress,  through  the  introduction 
into  the  home  of  modern  machines,  modern  methods,  and  mod- 
ern motives ;  the  elimination  of  human  and  material  waste — 
through  freedom  from  mere  tradition  and  social  custom — and  lut 
the  conservation  of  time,  health,  money,  and  beauty  in  closer 
domestic  co-operation;  as  well  as  the  establishment  of  a  Home 
Economic  course  in  the  State  College,  which  course  is  now 
existent. 

The  idea  was  to  meet  what  has  been  generally  termed  the 
"Servant  Problem."     To  do  this  the  social  and  economic — as 
well  as  the  personal — factors  concerned  in  this  phase  of  capital 
and  labor   have   been   pointed   out,   together  with  the   unjust 
results  to  both  sides  in  our  present  custom  and  form  of  con- 
tract, and  the  immense  profit  that  will  follow  in  the  wake  of  I 
professionalizing — on  a  business  basis — such  essential  and  po-  ' 
tentially  high  class  labor. 

.Our  hope  is  to  bring  the  masculine  and  feminine  mind  more 
closely  together  in  the  industry  of  home-making,  by  raising 
housework  on  the  one  side  to  the  plane  of  Scientific  Engineer- 
ing; and  by  proving  on  the  other,  fuller  individual  returns 
for^eveT^  complete  and  right  domestic  activity,  to  the  end  tnat 
the  Home  may  develop  progressively  moYe"  and  mOi'^  ab  tfae^ 
efficient  unit  of  the  State. 


The  present  volume  is  larger  and  very  different  from  the 


PREFACE 

booklet  report  intended  in  the  beginning.  It  has  developed  of 
itself,  unintentionally,  taking  this  form  through  unexpected 
University  interest. 

An  unconventional  feature  included  at  the  end  of  the  book 
is  a  list  of  approved  household  articles  and  where  to  procure 
them.  Because  these  are  questions  constantly  asked,  and  be- 
cause the  author  feels  that  the  educational  and  commercial 
interests  should  have  closer  co-operation,  she  has  seen  fit  to 
include  this  partial  list  of  Business  Houses. 

In  no  case  has  any  profit  accrued  to  her  in  so  doing,  and  in 
only  two  instances  have  the  firms  listed  known  their  names 
would  appear. 

In  conclusion,  if  there  is  anything  of  value  within  these  pages 
'suggestive  to  the  present  home-maker,  or  helpful  to  future 
ones,  it  is  the  result  of  pleasant  and  profitable  hours  of  research, 
study  and  test ;  and  the  interested  co-operation  of  other  women, 
particularly  those  of  the  Club  in  Colonia,  who  have  been  untir- 
ing in  their  kindly  service  to  the  idea — the  Conservation  of  the 
individual  Home. 

M.  P. 

Colonia,  New  Jersey. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 


PART  I 
THE  PRACTICAL  HOME 


FIRST    CHAPTER 

WHAT   IS   A    HOME? 

One's  purpose,  object,  or  ideal  in  producing  a  home — What  it  is— f- 
What  it  should  stand  for — Its  meaning  to  the  family  and  to  each 
member  thereof — The  difference  between  home  and  institution— |fe 
Why  the  conservation  of  the  private  home  is  worth  while — Why  no 
live  in  hotels  or  blocks  of  living — The  more  important,  the  econom- 
ics  of  money,  or  of  men  and  life — The  difficulty  of  mass  develop- 
ment — The  small  group  the  ideal  order PAGE  29 

SECOND    CHAPTER 

GENERAL    SURVEY    OF    THE    HOME 

The  status  of  the  modern  home — A  general  outlook  upon  the 
home  as  it  is — The  different  classes  of  homes — The  points  of  rela- 
tion between  them  all — The  evolution  of  the  home,  and  the  reason 
for  a  new  conception — Why  it  is  as  it  is — The  practical  working 
out  of  an  ideal  from  present  conditions — The  results  from  the  large 
number  of  questionnaires  sent  out  by  the  Station  and  upon  which  the 
work  was  founded PAGE  35 

THIRD    CHAPTER 

THE    BUDGET 

In  the  practical  production  of  the  home,  the  Budget,  or  the 
money  available,  is  of  prime  importance — The  value  of  the  Budget 
in  establishing  standards  and  educating  for  the  business  of  pur- 
chasing— Considered  as  a  developer  and  "as  a  controlling  fac- 
tor   PAGE  47 

FOURTH   CHAPTER 

THE    ELIMINATION    OF    THE    SERVANT    CLASS 

Why  the  Servant  Class  should  be  eliminated — The  evolution  from 
the  slave— The  Mediaeval  form  of  contract— The  old-time  "Mem- 

3 


CONTENTS 

her  of  the  family"  sort  extinct — Some  appalling  statistics  of  the 
present  day — The  very  small  percentage  of  people  who  keep  ser- 
vants— The  Specialist — The  limitation  they  put  upon  the  progress 
of  the  home  and  the  actual  scarcity  of  them  in  the  field — The  cost 
of  servants — Their  degenerating  effect  upon  the  family.  .  .PAGE  52 

FIFTH    CHAPTER 

AN  AUTO-OPERATIVE   HOUSE 

A  simple  system  of  indexing  and  cataloging  that  tells  the  place 
of  everything  in  the  house — A  simplifying  method  of  self-showing 
to  the  stranger  who  would  take  charge  at  a  moment's  notice — A 
great  relief  to  the  woman  who  feels  she  is  indispensable  in  order 
that  the  house  may  be  kept  running — Periodical  housecleaning 
unnecessary — Mutual  dependence  makes  for  an  order  of  indepen- 
dence  PAGE  59 

SIXTH   CHAPTER 

THE     BUSINESS     OF     PURCHASING 

How  to  spend — Training  in  the  knowledge  of  values — The  ma- 
terials one  should  buy  and  what  each  purchase  means  to  other 
housekeepers — The  shop,  the  dealer,  the  trade,  and  the  standard 
of  business  in  the  town — Honest  labels — Textiles — Proper  weights 
and  measures — Inspected  foods,  package  goods,  cold  storage,  etc., 
and  the  conditions  in  delivery PAGE  65 

SEVENTH   CHAPTER 

THE   ROUTE   OF   MATERIAL 

The  route  the  material  takes  from  the  receiving  station,  or  place 
of  entrance  in  the  house,  to  the  final  use — The  storage  of  each 
class  of  goods — Their  classification  and  the  ease  of  acces- 
sibility  PAGE  73 

EIGHTH    CHAPTER 

THE    INSTRUCTION    BUREAU 

The  housekeeping  library — The  classification  of  all  household 
instruction,  receipts,  patterns,  designs,  plans,  etc. — A  reservoir  of 
perpetual  education  in  all  home-making  subjects — A  convenient  way 
of  keeping  one's  self  up  to  date  in  household  matters — A  refer- 
ence of  the  best-known  ways — A  source  of  instruction  to  which 
one  adds  and  takes  as  occasion  suggests PAGE  80 

4 


CONTENTS 
NINTH  CHAPTER 

HOUSEHOLD     EQUIPMENT,     UTENSILS     AND     DEVICES 

The  result  of  the  Experiment  Station's  tests  in  machinery  and 
devices  of  all  sorts — Those  constructed  upon  the  best  principle 
and  with  standard  material — A  detailed  description  of  their  use, 
care,  cost,  and  profit,  and  where  and  how  they  should  be  pur- 
chased— Their  inter-dependence — The  Machine  and  the  Ser- 
vant   PAGE  84 

TENTH   CHAPTER 

THE      ELIMINATION      OF      DRUDGERY 

Analysis  of  the  different  departments  of  housework — What  is 
Drudgery — Why  it  should  be  eliminated — Machine  labor  gener- 
ally cheaper  than  hand  labor — The  difference  in  the  quality  of  work 
— What  sort  of  work  should  be  done  by  hand  and  what  by  machine 
— Ignorance  the  only  excuse  for  drudgery PAGE  96 

ELEVENTH    CHAPTER 

TIME    AND   MOTION    STUDY 

What  is  time  and  motion  study — The  three  motives  in  all  move- 
ment— Analysis  of  each  piece  of  work,  or  operation,  into  its  units 
— The  use  of  a  stop  watch — The  standard  time  for  each  task — 
The  elimination  of  waste  motions — Examples  in  the  study  of  units 
— Scraping  a  plate,  cutting  bread,  etc. — The  organization  of  one's 
surroundings  so  that  the  greatest  efficiency  may  result — Planning 
ahead  and  dispatching — The  head  and  the  hand  in  each  task — 
How  they  should  work  together — Why  they  should  not  work  to- 
gether— Records  and  results  of  special  tasks  studied  at  the  Station 
— Preparing  vegetables — Getting  a  breakfast — Washing  dishes, 
dusting  stairs,  washing,  ironing,  etc PAGE  103 

TWELFTH    CHAPTER 

THE    REGENERATION    OF    THE    KITCHEN 

Kitchen  atmosphere  of  beauty,  health  and  well-being  should 
permeate  entire  house — not  a  place  to  get  away  from,  but  to  attract 
with  charm  of  hospitality,  activity,  ease  and  contentment — A  re- 
valuation needed — Fire  and  civilization — The  kitchen  stove  the  pivot 
—Comparative  cost  of  coal,  alcohol,  gas  and  electricity — Cost  of 
cooking  vegetables,  meat,  etc. — Description  of  a  studio  kitchen — A 
Pullman  car  kitchen — The  kitchen  at  the  station — Ugly  fixtures 

5 


CONTENTS 

a   common   difficulty — Cleanliness   and   beauty — The   real   meaning 
of  the  kitchen — Home,  fire  and  food PAGE  112 

THIRTEENTH  CHAPTER 

THE  EFFICIENT  LAUNDRY 

Laundry  work  in  the  home  affected  by  machinery — The  scientific 
way  to  wash — A  description  of  the  laundry  at  the  Station,  and  why 
it  was  so  arranged — Some  records  in  special  tasks — Modern  pos- 
sibilities in  ironing — Comparison  with  the  old  way — Co-operative 
laundries — Why  a  machine  should  be  used  by  more  than  one 
family  PAGE  122 

FOURTEENTH    CHAPTER 

FOOD,    ITS    PREPARATION    AND    VALUE 

What  one  should  eat  to  be  strong — Food  adulterations — How 
to  feed  a  family — A  list  of  foods  worthy  one's  time  in  preparation 
— Some  simple  ways  of  procuring  the  required  nourishment — The 
danger  in  denatured  foods — "Brown  rice"  and  whole  grains — Foods 
in  season — Simplicity  in  preparation — The  value  of  flavor — The 
futility  of  most  "made  dishes" — Some  successful  menus — The  im- 
portance of  knowing  the  right  temperature  for  each  article  to  be 
cooked — Easy  methods  of  serving — The  use  of  the  fireless  cooker 
— Some  results  in  bread  making — The  three  classes  of  foods — 
An  efficiency  breakfast — An  efficiency  luncheon — Fashion  in  foods 
— Scientific  food  values PAGE  129 

FIFTEENTH    CHAPTER 

SYSTEM    IN    HOUSEKEEPING 

Definition  of  System,  Principles — from  which  each  must  develop 
an  individual  system — The  object  of  a  flexible  system — What  it 
means  to  run  a  house  on  the  efficiency  system — Why  it  is  the  only 
means  of  growth — The  meaning  of  the  days  of  the  week — The 
psychology  of  system — The  Taylor  System — Emerson's  twelve 
principles — The  value  of  immediate  records — Standards  and 
schedules — Planning  and  dispatching PAGE  144 

SIXTEENTH    CHAPTER 

SKILLED    LABOR 

How  to  supply  the  demand  for  skilled  labor — The  formation  of 
a  labor  corporation  in  each  city,  with  expert  workers  for  all  parts 

6 


CONTENTS 

of  housework — Nature  of  such  contracts — Time  of  service — Com- 
parative cost  with  old  methods — Some  results  from  the  Station's 
records — The  possibilities  of  an  eight-hour  day,  etc PAGE  154 

SEVENTEENTH    CHAPTER 

STANDARDIZATION 

What  Standardization  means  to  the  home  and  to  one's  habit  of 
thought — A  summing  up  of  approved  standards  throughout  the 
home,  in  conditions,  equipment,  material,  operations  and  results — 
The  education  in  scientific  management — Home  standards  of  Art, 
Philosophy,  Science,  Business  and  Religion PAGE  162 


PART  II 
THE   PERSONAL  HOME 

FIRST    CHAPTER 

PERSONAL  FREEDOM 

The  family  exists  that  the  individual  members  may  best  develop 
— The  value  of  establishing  independence  in  the  very  young — All 
phases  of  personal  dependence  to  be  avoided — The  dependent  wife 
— The  independent    grandparents — What   individual   independence    \/\S\  A 
means   in   relation  to   personal   freedom — The  highest  human   effi-    »v    V 
ciency  centers  in  individual  independence PAGE   171 


SECOND    CHAPTER 

THE    ORGANIZATION    OF    THE    FAMILY 

The  family  as  the  larger  order  of  individual — Its  organization 
around  an  Ideal,  or  object  of  common  understanding  and  sympathy 
— The  purpose  of  the  home  a  united  ambition — Coming  together 
at  stated  yet  informal  intervals  as  a  club  would  meet — The  family 
gathering  for  weekly  discussion,  and  a  program — When  each 
should  be  heard,  even  the  youngest — The  constitution  and  by-laws 
simple,  but  to  the  point — Such  meetings  the  modern  evolution  of 
the  family  prayer-meeting — All  fault  finding  should  be  reserved  for 
the  proper  time,  or  presented  in  writing — Criticism  should  be  in- 

7 


CONTENTS 

vited,  even  from  the  youngest — The  whole  efficiency  system  as  it 
applies  here — The  wonderful  results  possible PAGE   175 

THIRD    CHAPTER 

CO-OPERATION    IN    HOME    ACTIVITIES 

As  the  Efficiency  System  is  better  understood  in  the  organ- 
ization of  the  family,  it  becomes  a  co-operative  force  in  main- 
taining the  family — The  difference  between  functional  and  authori- 
tative management — Example  in  making  a  bed — Other  records  from 
the  Station — How  discipline  enters  here  and  makes  for  self-deter- 
mination and  control — The  morning  housework — Co-operative  en- 
tertaining without  servants  PAGE  1 80 


FOURTH    CHAPTER 

THE  HOME  AND  THE  MONEY  PROBLEM 

Money  not  the  real  solution — Ability  the  answer  in  most  cases — 
The  danger  of  a  money-making  ideal,  or  habit — The  virtue  in 
ingenuity — Our  whole  thought  of  money  needs  to  be  reversed — 
The  best  people  depend  on  their  capability,  not  on  their  cash — 
The  power  of  public  opinion — The  personal  note — The  servant 
problem  and  the  highest  bidder — What  to  do  with  leisure — Time 
our  only  concern — The  value  of  labor  versus  money — The  big  per- 
sonal result  the  most  important PAGE  185 

FIFTH    CHAPTER 

THE  CULTURAL  VALUE  OF  HOUSEWORK 

The  relation  of  the  home  to  all  that  is  finest  in  life — The  iso- 
lated, detached,  and  commonplace  attitude  toward  housework  the 
cause  of  drudgery — The  thoughtful  and  efficient  worker — The  lit- 
erary side  of  the  home — The  art  side — The  historical,  psychologi- 
cal, ethical,  sociological,  etc. — The  meaning  of  culture,  and  the 
relation  of  every  part  of  housework  to  a  larger  and  deeper  back- 
ground of  understanding  than  is  generally  allowed — The  appal- 
ling waste  through  not  appreciating  this  cultural  value — Every 
detail  should  be  considered  in  the  light  of  broad  knowledge — The 
necessity  for  the  widest  possible  perspective — Woman  the  source 
and  sustainer  of  life,  yet  knows  little  generally  of  natural 
science PAGE  1 89 

8 


CONTENTS 
SIXTH    CHAPTER 

TRAINING    FOR    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

What  is  meant  by  Domestic  Engineering — How  does  it  resemble 
and  how  differ  from  other  forms  of  engineering — The  keynote  and 
the  kind  of  training  required — Self-knowledge  the  foundation — 
Business  training — Mechanics — Manual  skill,  etc. — The  principal 
fault  in  Woman's  education — Cultivated  intuition  the  highest  fem- 
inine achievement — A  list  of  subjects  that  could  be  made  practically 
useful .' PAGE  193 

SEVENTH    CHAPTER 

THE    MEANING   OF   ROOMS 

Their  expression  through  furnishings,  coloring,  texture  and  com- 
position— Their  relation  to  each  other,  and  to  the  family  life — The 
rooms  as  the  mind  and  feeling  of  the  house — The  family  the  soul, 
and  the  house  itself  the  outer  form,  or  body — Fashion  in  furnish- 
ing— The  logical  way  to  furnish  a  house  and  the  right  use  of  a 
room PAGE  198 

EIGHTH    CHAPTER 

DOMESTIC   INDEPENDENCE    AND   HOSPITALITY 

Real  hospitality — The  Home  and  the  Guest — What  is  meant  by 
Domestic  Independence — How  it  becomes  the  keynote  in  home- 
making — No  one  thing  will  make  for  greater  progress  in  the  home 
than  this  feeling  of  being  equal  to  the  situation — The  Efficiency 
System  in  relation  to  visitors,  guests,  and  entertaining — How  to 
help  people  to  look  after  themselves — The  joy  in  producing  one's 
own  keep — The  value  of  a  Bulletin  Board  in  the  home — The  in- 
dependent going  and  coming — The  model  guest PAGE  204 

NINTH    CHAPTER 

AN  "EFFICIENCY"  DINNER 

Description  of  one  of  the  efficiency  dinners  given  at  the  Station — 
from  the  preparation  of  each  article  of  food  to  the  final  bidding 
of  the  guests  "good  night."  (This  is  an  example  that  anyone  can 
follow  and  improve  upon.) PAGE  210 

TENTH  CHAPTER 

CHILDREN   AND    THE   EFFICIENCY   SYSTEM 

The  welfare  of  children  under  this  system — How  they  take  to 
the  idea  without  question,  and  become  the  best  kind  of  students — 

9 


CONTENTS 

The  nurse  an  abomination  except  in  sickness  and  bodily  helpless- 
ness— From  the  age  of  three,  children  should  have  instructors  to 
%  I  make  them  self-reliant,  not  nurses  to  make  for  helplessness — The 
\\Efficiency  Method  and  the  Professional  Playmate — The  Day  Nurs- 
(Mery  as  an  efficiency  institution PAGE  215 

ELEVENTH    CHAPTER 

THE    BODY    IN    MOTION 

The  quality  of  bodily  motion — A  three-fold  motive  in  every  mo- 
tion: (1)  Accomplishment.  (2)  Exhilaration.  (3)  Beauty — How 
each  can  be  best  developed — The  possibilities  for  bodily  culture 
in  the  ordinary  household  movements — An  efficient  body,  a  strong 
body,  a  beautiful  body,  the  result  of  housework PAGE  219 

TWELFTH   CHAPTER 

THE    BODY    AND    ITS    GARMENTS 

How  the  present  standards  in  dress  have  been  the  result  of  the 
evolution  and  consciousness  of  the  body — True  standards  in  fash- 
ion— How  one  may  dress  "A  la  mode"  and  yet  with  another  mo- 
tive in  mind — The  influence  of  dress  standards  upon  children 
— The  economics  of  dress — Individuality — Beauty  paramount, 
etc PAGE  224 

THIRTEENTH    CHAPTER 

THE  TRAINING  AND  BEAUTY  OF  THE  HAND 

Individuality  and  the  hand — Its  personal  expression — The  misuse 
of  the  hand — The  proper  use — Its  quality,  texture,  and  shape  a 
matter  of  cultivation — The  importance  of  proper  movements — The 
best  manner  of  using  the  hand  in  housework — Its  care,  color,  and 
smoothness — The  way  to  treat  it — The  cultivated  hand  a  great 
asset — Housework  as  a  hand  beautifier PAGE  229 

FOURTEENTH     CHAPTER 

THE    FIVE    SENSES 

The  co-ordination  and  co-operation  of  the  senses  in  housework — 
The  environment  important  as  it  affects  the  senses — The  senses 
the  real  basis  of  spirituality — The  higher  cultivation  of  taste  and 
smell — The  value  of  touch — The  sense  of  sight  as  an  educator — 
Why  noises  should  be  avoided PAGE  235 

10 


CONTENTS 
FIFTEENTH    CHAPTER 

THE  NEED  OF  BEAUTY  IN  EVERYDAY  LIFE 

Love  of  beauty  a  fundamental  instinct — Should  be  given  every 
chance  for  expression — Every  intelligent  effort  should  be  made  to 
push  this  instinct  into  its  best  use — Nothing  can  reach  its  maxi- 
mum usefulness  until  it  includes  the  element  of  beauty — The  stand- 
ards of  beauty  suggested  in  the  Experiment  Station — Color,  tone, 
form,  proportion,  composition  and  expression — The  home  the  cen- 
ter of  the  nation's  aesthetic  progress — The  spirit  and  love  of  beauty 
as  practical  essentials  in  home  life PAGE  240 


PART  III 
THE  PROGRESSIVE  HOME 

FIRST    CHAPTER 

THE    HOME    AND    POLITICS 

Nothing  in  the  home  that  is  not  affected  by  politics  and  the  gov- 
ernment, from  the  building,  its  inspection,  and  the  standard  of  the 
material  used,  to  the  last  article  of  furniture  purchased — From 
the  gas,  electricity,  and  water,  to  the  box  of  matches  and  the  bottle 
of  milk — Home-making  no  longer  a  private  undertaking,  but  a  pub- 
lic function,  affected  by  municipal  and  state  conditions — The  school, 
the  library,  the  market,  and  the  roads — The  larger  housekeeping 
means  efficient  government,  and  the  best  possible  talent  for  public 
office — Food,  clothing,  and  shelter  are  now  political  interests ;  man's 
duty  to  provide  these — woman's  to  guarantee  their  quality — The, 
tools  and  weapons  for  their  protection  the  obligation  of  man — The 
preparation  for,  and  education  in  their  use,  the  function  of  woman 
— Better  homes  will  produce  better  citizens  and  better  government 
— Better  politics  will  make  for  better  homes PAGE  247 

SECOND    CHAPTER 

THE    HOME    AND    SOCIETY 

The  relation  between  homes — How  the  standard  of  each  affects 
the  other — All  have  same  fundamental  character  and  same  prob- 
lems— The  growing  home  the  social  unit — The  real  use  of  society — 
Fashion:  its  use  and  abuse — Society  in  the  small  and  large  circle, 
and  the  place  the  home  should  always  hold — The  social  obliga- 

11 


CONTENTS 

tion  in  every  act — The  highest  social  standards — An  efficient  soci- 
ety— Our  relation  to  each  other  the  most  important  thing  in 
life  PAGE  251 

THIRD    CHAPTER 

EDUCATION    AND   THE   HOME 

The  school  and  the  home — The  heart  or  home  sense  in  public 
institutions — The  social  cell  organization  a  tool — The  home — the 
only  orderly  educational  foundation  and  means  of  growth  for  any 
nation — The  intimate  understanding  of  each  other  in  work  and  play 
— Man  and  woman  in  the  home — To  serve  the  State  a  duty  as  well 
as  a  progressive  necessity — Men  only  half  the  organism — The  State 
needs  the  completed  whole,  as  does  the  home — America  must  be 
a  progressive  ideal  example  for  the  world — No  more  virtuous  than 
Germany,  France,  or  England  except  as  we  make  ourselves  so — . 
Freedom  the  goal  only  as  freedom  is  given  to  others — Intensive 
human  cultivation  should  be  the  effort — Civilization  should  be  made 
the  great  concern  of  every  individual  citizen — Beginning  in  the 
home  PAGE  257 

FOURTH     CHAPTER 

MUNICIPAL    HOUSEKEEPING 

City  housekeeping  the  result  of  the  standard  of  the  unit  house- 
keeper— The  individual  home  insufficient  unless  active  in  municipal 
housekeeping — The  larger  businesslike  methods  are  needed  for  the 
operation  of  the  modern  progressive  home — City  standards  the 
result  of  what  the  people  want — Hospitals,  reform  schools,  jails, 
and  charities  reduced  to  a  minimum  in  the  efficient  city — All  these 
a  form  of  waste — The  meaning  of  streets,  sewers,  bad  housing  and 
sanitation — The  public  market,  recreation  and  education — Home  and 
city  co-operation — The  object  in  a  City  Beautiful PAGE  265 

FIFTH    CHAPTER 

THE    ORGANIZATION    OF    THE    CONSUMER 

The  increasing  importance  of  the  home-maker  as  Consumer — She 
spends  90%  of  all  that  is  spent  for  food,  shelter,  and  clothing — 
The  necessity  of  acting  together  as  consumers — Organization  of  a 
Board  of  Buyers  to  co-operate  with  the  local  Board  of  Trade — 
The  Housewives'  League — The  consumer,  distributor  and  producer 
must  come  together  in  reducing  the  cost  of  living — The  psychology 
of  buying — The  women  to  blame — Too  slow  in  organization — 

12 


CONTENTS 

Ignorance  in  food  standards — Waste  in  the  manufacture  of  textiles 
— Comparative  strength  and  wearing  quality — The  rented  home — 
The  standards  of  shops PAGE  269 

SIXTH  CHAPTER 

HEAT,  LIGHT,  AIR,  WATER 

Sunlight  and  the  efficient  life — Artificial  light  in  relation  to  cost 
and  eye-sight — The  eye  and  its  use — Beauty  in  illumination — Public 
Stations  for  heat  supply — The  Thermostat — The  most  efficient  house 
systems  of  heating — Required  moisture — The  over-heated  house — 
Unpolluted  air — The  smoke  and  dust  nuisance — Their  cost  and  dan- 
ger to  health — Air  and  the  perfect  man — Public  water  supply — Its 
effect  upon  the  home  operations — The  value  of  baths,  public  and 
private PAGE  274 

SEVENTH    CHAPTER 

EXTERMINATION    OF    THE    FLY    AND    MOSQUITO 

(Used  as  a  basis  of   Sanitation) 

Extermination  of  the  fly  and  mosquito  a  hygienic  necessity — 
Lessons  from  Panama — The  habits  of  mosquitoes — Their  local  breed- 
ing places — The  Board  of  Health  and  the  public  demand — No  neces- 
sity for  mosquitoes  anywhere — Their  effect  upon  children  and 
animals,  and  upon  outdoor  life  generally — These  things  a  home 
menace  with  no  excuse  for  being  except  ignorance — Cost  of  elimina- 
tion slight — Co-operation  and  education  essential PAGE  279 

EIGHTH   CHAPTER 

A    HOME    MUNICIPAL    LABORATORY 

There  should  be  a  testing  place  for  foods,  and  household  equip- 
ment, that  the  honest  efficient  business  man  may  be  encouraged  to 
higher  standards,  and  the  dishonest  fake  not  allowed  to  be  a  public 
menace — Education  should  not  stop  at  the  High  School — There 
should  be  a  consultation  place  for  grown-ups  in  how  to  spend,  and 
how  to  live,  for  health  and  bank  protection — Something  like  the 
Experiment  Station  on  a  larger  scale  should  be  a  part  of  every 
municipality,  with  as  little  red  tape  as  possible  and  as  much  reliable 
information — Women  should  control  such  a  laboratory.  .  .PAGE  283 

13 


CONTENTS 
NINTH  CHAPTER 

MORAL     STANDARDS 

Public  and  private  moral  standards — An  accepted  policy  at  the 
Station — The  efficiency  method  the  result  of  practical  working 
morality — Housework  and  its  moral — The  morality  of  hospitality 
and  sociability — Children  and  the  new  moral  policy — Moral  educa- 
tion and  moral  practice — The  Square  Deal  of  Efficiency.  .PAGE  287 

TENTH    CHAPTER 

LOVE    AND    HOME 

Love  and  Common  Sense — Love  and  Personality — The  power  to 
love  found  in  everyone — Systematic  training  of  love  nature — The 
development  of  personal  interest — Love  the  greatest  motive  power 
in  the  world — Universal  passion  for  expression  of  self — The  State 
and  Efficiency  in  vocation — The  discipline  of  the  unpleasant — In- 
sight and  understanding — Love  and  the  home — Housework  and  per- 
sonal temperament — Love  for  a  great  Cause — Love  Moods — The 
Maternal,  or  feminine  emotion  in  public  life PAGE  293 

ELEVENTH     CHAPTER 

HOUSEWORK     AND    DEMOCRACY 

The  home  the  miniature  world — The  new  democracy — The  value 
of  work — The  lower  task — The  higher  tasks — The  middle  tasks — 
The  Scientific  task — The  relation  of  home-makers — Of  house- 
keepers— Of  house  workers — Productivity — The  efficient  and  pro- 
gressive democracy — Housework  and  the  new  progressive  ideal- 
ism   PAGE  298 


FOREWORDS 

PHILADELPHIA. 

About  one  hundred  years  ago  began  the  movement  which 
transferred  machinery  from  the  home  to  the  factory.  Up  to 
that  time  practically  all  spinning,  weaving,  garment  making 
and  a  large  part  of  all  the  world's  manufacturing  was  done 
in  the  workman's  home ;  and  the  wife  and  daughters  (when  they 
were  not  engaged  in  the  drudgery  of  housework)  spent  the 
greater  part  of  their  time  at  the  spinning  wheel,  the  loom,  or 
in  needlework. 

The  transfer  of  machinery  from  the  home  to  the  factory 
marked  an  epoch  in  the  progress  of  women.  It  shortened  the 
hours  of  labor  and  gave  them  at  least  a  small  opportunity  for 
reading,  study  and  social  enjoyment. 

Little  did  they  dream,  however,  that  a  similar  blessing  Was 
to  be  conferred  upon  their  great-granddaughters  through  the 
return  of  machinery  to  the  household. 

The  work  of  Mrs.  Pattison  marks  the  beginning  of  this 
era  in  women's  progress.  The  hours  of  labor  are  again  to  be 
shortened ;  and,  strangely  enough,  her  advancement  this  time 
will  be  due  to  the  newer  and  higher  application  of  the  primi- 
tive tool. 

Now,  however,  it  comes  as  her  servant,  while  in  the  old  days 
it  was  her  master. 

Already  the  efficiency  movement  has  begun  to  lighten  the 
burden  of  a  considerable  portion  of  our  activities. 

Mrs.  Pattison's  work,  however,  extends  this  movement  to  by 
far  the  largest  field  which  has  yet  been  touched. 

In  her  book  she  has  shown  us  that  through  the  introduction 
of  labor-saving  machinery  into  the  home  it  is  possible  to  dimin- 
ish household  work  by  one-half,  and  conserve  one's  self  in  the 
effort.  And  when  we  realize  that  in  90  per  cent,  of  the  families 
of  this  country  the  mother  and  daughters  are  doing  all  of  their 
work  without  the  aid  of  a  servant,  we  begin  to  appreciate  what 
a  blessing  Mrs.  Pattison  is  conferring  upon  women  through 

15 


FOREWORDS 

presenting  the  results  of  her  investigations  and  her  experi- 
ments. 

Bringing  these  experiments  to  a  successful  issue  has  called 
for  unusual  qualities. 

Patience,  perseverance  and  mechanical  judgment  of  a  high 
order  are  required  to  install  and  try  out  all  sorts  of  apparatus 
in  a  house;  and  to  finally  select  the  best  appliance  for  each 
purpose. 

Only  by  using  and  discarding  machine  after  machine  is  it 
possible  to  find  the  one  best  suited  to  perform  each  function; 
and  this  selection  involves  a  large  expenditure  of  money. 

Plenty  of  people  could  be  found  who  would  be  willing  to 
spend  their  money  freely  in  this  cause.  Few  women,  however, 
with  ample  means  to  employ  servants  would,  for  the  sake  of 
their  poorer  sisters  and  society,  choose  to  do  all  of  their  own 
housework  through  a  term  of  years  and  spend  in  experiments 
money  which  might  have  been  used  in  increasing  their  personal 
comfort. 

We  are  accustomed  to  associate  the  use  of  machinery  with 
the  matter-of-fact  side  of  life.  As  eminent  an  authority  as 
Ruskin  has  taught  us  that  its  presence  acts  as  a  blight  to  all 
of  our  artistic  instincts. 

It  may,  therefore,  be  a  question  in  the  minds  of  many  whether 
its  daily  use  might  not  tend  to  diminish  the  interest  of  the 
wife  in  the  aesthetic  side  of  her  surroundings ;  cause  her  to 
neglect  her  personal  appearance  and  to  care  less  for  the  deli- 
cate and  dainty  things  of  life — the  distinctly  feminine  things 
that  give  a  home  its  greatest  attraction. 

If  this  were  true  then  the  introduction  of  machinery  in  the 
household  might  indeed  prove  to  be  a  doubtful  blessing. 

Mrs.  Pattison  is  a  living  proof  that  this  fact  would  seem 
to  be  ungrounded.  She  is  a  woman  with  artistic  instincts  and 
fine  discrimination,  and  in  spite  of  doing  all  of  her  own  house- 
work,— experimenting  with  the  whole  field  of  domestic  machinery 
and  writing  her  book,  she  has  found  time  to  select  the  very 
choicest  from  among  the  various  homely  styles  that  have  been 
imposed  upon  us  during  the  past  few  years;  and  through 
her  good  taste  and  originality  has  brought  about  her  the 

16 


FOREWORDS 

best  of  refinement,  and  has  always  been  well  and  artistically 
dressed. 

Mrs.  Pattison  is  publishing,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  first  work 
in  the  field  of  household  or  domestic  engineering;  and  if  this 
be  true,  in  a  smaller  way  perhaps  she  is  doing  a  pioneer  work 
similar  to  that  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci  in  his  "II  Codice  Atlan- 
tico,"  Newton  in  his  "Principia,"  and  Darwin  in  his  "Origin  of 
Species." 

This  association  of  Mrs.  Pattison's  name  with  the  greatest  of 
the  past  may  cause  some  of  the  readers  of  this  book  to  smile ; 
but  I  am  not  sure  that  this  new  branch  of  engineering  is  not 
destined  to  do  almost  as  much  for  mankind  as  the  work  of  either 
of  these  great  men  has  accomplished. 

It  is  no  small  achievement  to  be  a  pioneer  in  a  movement  to 
lighten  the  burdens  of  many  millions  of  people. 


17 


FOREWORDS 


TEACHERS  COLLEGE, 
COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY. 

The  whole  modern  period  in  which  we  live  may  be  summed  up 
in  the  relations  of  the  home  and  the  machine.  The  industrial 
revolution  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  meant  the 
transfer  of  industrial  processes  from  the  home  to  the  factory 
so  far  as  the  production  of  goods  for  an  outside  market  was 
concerned.  Some  production  for  immediate  consumption  within 
the  family  did  not,  however,  yield  itself  to  machine  methods  but 
remained  within  the  home.  Progress  for  the  home  to-day  as 
far  as  housework  is  concerned  is  to  be  accomplished  either  by 
transferring  housework  outside  the  home  to  the  machine,  or 
by  bringing  the  machine  to  the  work  left  within  the  house. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  progress  will  be  ultimately  secured  along 
both  lines. 

All  that  part  of  housework  which  can  be  transferred  outside 
the  house  without  destroying  the  home  as  a  center  of  the  per- 
sonal life  of  the  family  group — and  that  we  are  seeing  con- 
cerns the  adults  as  much  as  the  children — is  bound  in  time  to  be 
organized  in  large  industrial  units.  The  laundry,  for  example, 
may  better  be  done  in  a  sanitary  factory,  with  specialized  work- 
ers, to  be  employed  for  an  eight-hour  day  soon,  let  us  hope. 
There  is  an  irreducible  minimum,  however,  of  work  which  must 
stay  within  the  home — the  care  of  the  house  itself  and  its  fur- 
nishings, the  immediate  preparation  of  food  and  the  family 
table,  the  care  of  the  child, — these  things  in  the  nature  of  the 
case  cannot  go  outside  the  home,  and  the  last  word  in  prog- 
ress is  to  bring  the  machine  in.  There  is  a  wider  field  of  work 
which  as  a  practical  matter  will  remain  within  the  home,  espe- 
cially within  the  detached  house  at  least, — the  laundering  of  tex- 
tiles in  part  probably,  the  care  of  clothing,  the  domestic  food 
processes  as  we  know  them — all  these  seem  likely  to  remain 
within  the  house  for  some  time  to  come,  partly  for  personal  and 
historical  reasons,  but  even  more  for  economic  reasons  which 
make  it  imperative  that  the  housewife  add  to  family  income  by 
productive  work  at  home  just  as  the  husband's  labor  produces 

18 


FOREWORDS 

money  income  outside.  The  wife  is  needed  at  home  for  its  per- 
sonal control;  she  must  add  to  family  income;  she  can  do  it 
only  by  retaining  certain  household  arts  within  the  home,  al- 
though gradually  other  methods  of  income-producing  may  open 
to  the  married  woman.  For  the  present,  however,  for  many 
household  activities  progress  must  come  through  the  adoption 
of  machinery  within  the  home. 

What  the  farther  future  has  for  the  home,  one  may  not  know. 
But  the  growing  emphasis  upon  its  personal  values  may  lead 
one  to  prophesy  the  ultimate  transfer  to  factories  of  all  house- 
work save  that  concerned  with  the  care  of  persons  and  personal 
property,  with  the  service  of  the  family  table  furnished  increas- 
ingly from  outside  kitchens,  and  with  the  care  and  direction  of 
child  life  and  the  family  group. 

Now  the  person  who  will  experiment  with  the  problem  of 
adapting  machinery  to  the  economical  performance  of  work 
within  the  house  is  solving  one-half  our  puzzling  domestic  situ- 
ation. And  the  person  who  develops  methods  of  handling  the 
work  of  the  house  transferred  to  outside  industry  is  solving  the 
other  half.  In  either  case  it  is  to  domestic  engineering,  whether 
small  or  large,  that  we  must  look,  and  to  the  anticipated  schools 
of  household  technology.  A  degree  course  leading  toward  the 
profession  of  "domestic  engineer"  was  proposed,  indeed,  some 
years  ago  by  one  of  our  schools  of  technology. 

It  is  just  that  which  our  colleges  must  give  us,  not  a  course 
with  some  specialization  in  household  science,  but  schools  for  the 
household  technician,  and  engineer,  a  professional  worker  who 
will  specialize  in  the  field  of  household  engineering  with  the 
same  thoroughness,  the  same  intensity,  the  same  singleness  of 
aim  as  mark  the  preparation  of  the  marine  engineer,  the  elec- 
trical engineer,  the  chemical  engineer,  or  any  of  the  other  spe- 
cialized engineering  professions  which  have  developed  for  men 
in  the  last  two  generations.  It  is  just  at  this  point  that  one 
may  find  fault  with  the  higher  education  of  women,  even  in  its 
present  specialized  form  of  home  economics.  It  has  given  us 
150  colleges  with  departments  of  domestic  science,  household 
arts  and  home  economics — all  of  which  are  well  and  good.  But 
no  one  institution  has  yet  gone  to  the  full  limit  of  the  possi- 

19 


FOREWORDS 

bilities  and  given  us  a  university  school  of  household  engineer- 
ing for  women  and  for  men  too.  It  is  this  that  the  next  ten 
years  must  furnish  if  the  problems  of  the  household  are  to  be 
intelligently  solved.  It  is  because  this  book  points  in  that  direc- 
tion and  emphasizes  what  seems  to  me  one  great  need  in  edu- 
cation for  the  home  that  I  welcome  it  so  heartily.  It  is  note- 
worthy too  as  a  significant  piece  of  evidence  arising  from  the 
women's  clubs,  an  organization  whose  wise  efforts  for  social 
betterment  have  not  yet  been  fully  appreciated  by  the  public 
and  whose  possibilities  have  not  yet  been  one-half  realized  by 
its  own  members. 


20 


FOREWORDS 


NEW  YORK. 

The  home  is  the  place  where  the  parents  rear  the  young. 
The  place  of  solitary  residence  may  be  a  lair,  or  a  roost.  A 
man's  club  may  often  be  a  splendid  roost,  his  office  may  be  a 
splendid  lair,  but  neither  are  homes ;  hotels  are  roosts  for  man 
and  wife,  but  they  are  not  homes. 

It  is  woman's  instinct  to  create  a  home.  On  the  western 
prairies  we  could  tell  as  far  as  we  could  see  whether  we  were 
approaching  the  solitary  and  degenerate  roost  of  the  bachelor, 
or  the  incipient  home,  however  elementary  and  humble,  created 
by  the  maid,  widow,  or  married  woman. 

A  destructive  hostile  struggle,  whether  on  playground,  on 
the  battle-field,  in  love  or  in  business,  the  tearing  down  of  the 
old  that  the  new  might  grow,  only  in  turn  to  be  uprooted,  has 
always  been  man's  instinct  and  delight,  so  the  constructive  up- 
building of  the  chaotic  into  order  and  organization  has  always 
been  woman's  instinct. 

But  above  both  man  and  woman  there  is  one  law  that  applies 
equally  to  all  man's  activities  and  all  woman's  activities,  whether 
individual  or  collective,  and  that  therefore  applies  particularly 
to  the  upbuilding  of  the  home. 

There  are  four  supreme  and  universal  rules : 

(1)  Obtain  from  each  unit,  whether  worker,  material, 
equipment,  or  money,  a  reasonable  maximum  of  re- 
sult. 

(52)  Standardize  the  cost  of  maintenance  and  operation 
and  then  attain  the  standards. 

(3)  Use  only  those  units  best  fitted  for  the  purpose. 

(4)  Beware  of  increasing  capital  charges  by  discarding 

unfit  units  before  they  are  worn  out. 

And  when  it  comes  to  collective  work  woman  should  be  far 
more  ready  than  man  to  recognize  that  even  as  the  apple- 
blossom  is  still  in  all  its  delicacy  and  beauty,  visible  in  the  thin 
cross  section  of  the  ripe  apple,  so  also  all  sound  human  organiza- 

21 


FOREWORDS 

tion  is  but  the  fruiting  of  the  bud  that  we  find  in  the  organ- 
ization of  the  human  body. 

Every  great  principle  is  plainly  revealed.  Omit  one  and 
any  human  organization  is  weakened,  add  any  principle,  not 
in  the  body,  and  we  are  overloading  the  runner  in  the  race. 

The  body  reveals  the  principles: 

(1)  Of  permanent  and  oneness  of  will,  divided  into  the 

conscious  and  the  subconscious. 

(2)  Of  staff  and  line,  the  staff  of  maintenance  and  repair, 

the  heart,  the  lungs,  the  digestive  organs,  the  staff 
of  counsel  and  warning,  the  five  senses ;  the  mus- 
cular line,  the  hands  and  feet,  the  mouth,  that 
execute. 

(3)  The  staff   of  maintenance  works   continuously  long 

hours  at  low  pressure,  at  least  half  the  time  rest- 
ing and  needs  assistance  from  the  will,  but  few 
directions.  The  workers  in  this  staff  should  de- 
velop great  strength,  not  strenuousness.  We 
should  breathe  deeply,  the  heart  beat  should  be 
strong,  the  digestion  powerful. 

(4)  The  staff  of  counsel  never  pays  attention  to  the  com- 

mon place,  it  reports  instantly  to  the  conscious 
will  whatever  is  exceptional,  the  glaring  light  or  the 
great  darkness,  the  sudden  noise  or  the  oppressive 
stillness,  the  pleasant  or  the  horrid  taste  or  smell. 

(5)  The  line  workers  must  be  strenuous.     Not  continuous 

workers  like  the  workers  in  the  maintenance  staff, 
not  alert  sentinels  like  the  workers  in  the  counsel- 
ing staff,  but  intensive  workers  when  work  is  to  be 
done. 

(6)  Finally  in  the  human  organization  as  in  the  human 

body,  every  worker  is  peculiarly  and  exclusively 
fitted  for  its  own  duties.  The  hands  with  their 
own  brain  matter  in  the  finger  tips  may  be  com- 
petent in  a  hundred  directions,  but  they  never  con- 

22 


FOREWORDS 

sider  themselves  qualified  to  take  the  place  of  feet 
and  of  mouth,  of  heart  and  of  lungs,  of  eyes  and 
of  ears. 

Using  the  fundamental  of  organization,  applying  under  a  few 
easily  grasped  headings  all  the  experiences  of  the  past  and 

present — • 

Inherited  and  progressive  morality,  " 
Inherited  and  progressive  knowledge,^ 
Inherited  and  progressive  accumulation  of  wealth. 

Using  the  four  business  rules  as  to  the  control  of  each 
unit,  each  reader  will  be  prepared  to  apply  the  wealth  of  knowl- 
edge, suggestions,  and  instructions  contained  in  this  modern  sci- 
entific work  in  the  home. 

The  one  great  gift  each  has  is  the  number  of  hours  between 
birth  and  death.  What  shall  fill  into  those  hours?  One-third 
are  obliterated  in  sleep,  another  third  in  work,  is  the  remaining 
third  frittered  away?  Or  by  the  counsel  which  this  book  gives 
shall  twice  the  effective  results  be  obtained  from  the  eight  hours 
of  work,  shall  incalculably  more  be  obtained  from  the  eight 
hours  now  wasted  by  the  ten  thousand,  only  utilized  by  the  ten 
who  lead  the  world ;  eight  hours  even  if  taken  in  fractions  of  a 
minute  as  the  lungs  take  their  rest? 


FOREWORDS 


BOSTON. 

The  ultimate  aim  of  the  World-soul  seems  to  be,  according  to 
Emerson,  "Homes  of  virtue,  sense,  and  taste."  The  progress 
of  thought  in  our  country  seems  recorded  in  that  single  line. 

Homes  of  virtue  was  certainly  the  ideal  of  Pilgrim  and  Puri- 
tan? Stalwart  and  incorruptible  men  and  women  came  from 
those  early  homes,  where  "sense"  in  sanitation  and  matters  of 
convenience  and  comfort,  at  least,  was  rare,  and  where  "taste" 
was  dormant. 

Homes  of  sense  was  the  ideal  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Ade- 
quate water  supply,  a  heating  system,  bath  rooms,  ventilation, 
a  sanitary  and  well-equipped  kitchen,  and  labor-saving  devices 
of  all  kinds,  came  in  to  make  the  typical  home  in  the  United 
States  more  enjoyable,  from  the  merely  physical  point  of 
view,  than  the  homes  of  the  Kings  and  Queens  of  bygone  years. 

Homes  of  taste  is  the  ideal  of  the  twentieth  century.  And 
taste  is  coming  to  be  interpreted  in  the  broadest  possible  sense, 
the  sense  in  which  the  Greek  understood  it,  "Nothing  too 
much,"  plus  the  sense  in  which  the  Christian  understands  it, 
"everything  done  decently  and  in  order." 

Ultimately  virtue,  sense,  and  taste,  in  our  homes,  will  be  held 
in  just  balance.  To  hasten  that  day  is  the  aim  of  this  book,  a 
pioneer  in  its  field, — a  field  that  has  its  center  wherever  a  father, 
a  mother,  and  a  child  live  together.  The  home  is  the  very 
heart  of  civilization.  Out  of  that  heart  are  the  issues  of  life. 


PART   I 
THE  PRACTICAL  HOME 


"But  what  idea  predominates  in  our  houses?  Thrift  first, 
then  convenience  and  pleasure.  Take  off  all  the  roofs,  from 
street  to  street,  and  we  shall  seldom  find  the  temple  of  any  higher 
god  than  Prudence.  The  progress  of  domestic  living  has  been 
in  cleanliness,  in  ventilation,  in  health,  in  decorum,  in  countless 
means  and  arts  of  comfort,  in  the  concentration  of  all  the  util- 
ities of  every  clime  in  each  house.  They  are  arranged  -for  low 
benefits.  The  houses  of  the  rich  are  confectioners9  shops  where 
we  get  sweetmeats  and  wine:  the  houses  of  the  poor  are  imita- 
tions of  these  to  the  extent  of  their  ability.  With  these  ends 
housekeeping  is  not  beautiful;  it  cheers  and  raises  neither  the 
husband,  the  wife,  nor  the  child,  neither  the  host  nor  the  guest: 
it  oppresses  women." — EMERSON. 


CHAPTER    I 

WHAT    IS    A    HOME? 

"The  Heart  of  Home  will  burn  forever,  for  Nature  feeds  the  fire  " 

One  of  the  most  important  contributions  of  Scientific  Man- 
agement to  the  Industrial  world — beside  the  practical  plan  for 
the  co-operation  of  capital  and  labor, — is  its  insistence  that  the 
all-essential  element  of  every  endeavor  is  the  Ideal,  or  object  of 
such  activity.  This  fundamental  purpose  it  declares  should 
be  clearly  ^understood  and  constantly  in  the  minds  of  all  who 
share  in  the  effort  of  production.  In  other  words:  Have  a 
standard  of  excellence  before  beginning  work,  a  positive  direc- 
tion in  which  all  interest  tends.  This  does  not  mean  the  con- 
clusion will  be  merely  the  cut  and  dried  result  of  a  pattern,  at 
the  expense  of  the  growing  imagination  of  the  workman,  but 
it  does  mean  that  certain  principles  pertaining  to  the  thing 
in  hand,  must  be  thoroughly  comprehended ;  the  effect  or  result 
desired  definitely  imaged,  and  the  process  carefully  studied  in 
every  detail.  For  instance,  let  us  take  two  ways  of  making  a 
dress.  The  one,  where  the  work  is  all  mechanical,  with  no  par- 
ticular understanding  as  to  the  relation  of  the  seams  and  "lines" 
to  the  human  form  in  general,  and  none  to  the  one  in  particular 
for  whom  the  garment  is  intended.  The  work  proceeds  in  parts, 
probably  from  pattern  suggestions,  that  even  if  perfect  in  them- 
selves, fail  in  developing  either  the  best  talent  of  the  individ- 
ual worker,  or  in  bringing  out  the  personal  charms  of  the  wearer, 
because  of  there  being  no  clear  perception  of  the  unity  of  those 
parts,  in  relation  to  the  object  for  which  they  are  intended, 
or  any  developed  sense  of  the  highest  expression  of  which  they 
are  capable.  The  other  way  is  to  consider  well  at  the  start,  the 
composition  of  dress  in  general,  its  significance,  why  certain 
colors,  textures,  and  designs  suggest  certain  people,  the  occa- 
sions and  the  personality  for  which  the  particular  dress  is 

29 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

desired,  and  the  utmost  that  can  be  done  with  the  material 
at  hand.  As  the  work  proceeds  there  will  be  constant  improve- 
ment upon  the  original  thought,  and  the  dress  and  the  worker 
will  grow  under  the  operation.  The  difference  being  that  in 
the  latter,  all  the  study  possible  will  be  put  upon  the  idea,  or 
object  of  the  dress,  before  it  is  begun ;  its  relation  to  every  phase 
of  use  for  which  it  is  intended,  and  the  practice  in  the  kind  of 
technique  needed  to  perfect  each  part  that  they  may  properly 
fit  together  to  produce  the  one  "Creation"  best  adapted  to  the 
person  and  the  occasion  for  which  the  garment  is  designed. 
This  method  requires  more  thought  and  headwork,  but  there  is 
less  waste  and  fewer  failures,  and  beside  it  is  a  developing  proc- 
ess for  everyone  engaged  in  carrying  out  the  plan. 

If  we  would  follow  this  principle  of  Scientific  Management  in 
our  study  of  home-making,  we  must  ask  ourselves  at  the  outset 
— What  is  a  Home?  And  while  realizing  the  difficulty  of 
trying  to  put  into  words  the  real  and  spiritual  thing  for 
which  the  home  stands,  we  must  do  our  utmost  to  define  its 
meaning  and  purpose,  in  order  to  have  a  common  understand- 
ing of  the  object  for  which  we  are  all  striving,  and  a  particu- 
lar sense  of  each  one's  personal  problem  in  the  field.  There- 
fore, in  applying  Scientific  Management  to  the  subject,  we  must 
commence  by  trying  to  determine  just  what  is  the  nature  and 
aim  of  a  home.  We  know  it  is  not  necessarily  a  house,  for 
there  are  people  who  constantly  prove  the  truth  of  the  say- 
ing: "Home  is  where  my  shoes  are."  Again,  it  is  not  always 
necessary  to  think  of  it  as  a  place,  for  really  home  is  a  condi- 
tion, or  state  of  feeling.  One  feels  at  home,  or  not  at  home, 
according  to  one's  surroundings.  It  is  therefore  something 
more  than  any  house,  or  fixed  abiding  place  could  suggest. 
In  short,  if  its  meaning  had  to  be  put  into  three  words,  would 
they  not  be — Home  is  Atmosphere?  Or  a  longer  and  more 
workable  definition  for  our  purpose  might  be,  that  a  home  is 
the  constant  production  of  an  atmosphere,  or  state  of  organ- 
ized existence  for  the  purpose  of  providing  proper  shelter, 
comfort,  nourishment,  and  encouragement  for  the  development 
of  each  individual  member.  A  re-creation  center,  fertilized  by 
the  heart  and  mind  of  all  within,  and  ever  pregnant  with  life's 

30 


WHAT    IS    A    HOME? 

best  j  oy  s.  This  would  not  only  give  us  a  common  standard  of 
production,  but  a  general  direction  toward  which  effort  and 
organization  should  tend,  and  a  definite  basis  upon  which  to 
estimate  the  results  in  a  larger  life  and  more  wholesome  happi- 
ness for  everyone  concerned. 

A  home  is  not  only  a  shelter  from  cold  and  wind  and  rain,  but 
from  the  world's  outside  hostilities,  fears,  doubts,  and  divi- 
sions. It  offers  peace  and  rest  to  the  returning  worker,  a  cosy 
chair,  a  hearth,  and  a  feeling  that  all  is  well  because  this  cher- 
ished spot  exists,  wherein  retirement  is  possible  and  refresh- 
ment at  hand.  'Tis, 

"Love  makes  home  a  gracious  court, 
There,  let  the  world's  rude  hasty  ways 
Be  fashioned  to  a  loftier  port." 

Its  nourishment  is  more  than  meat,  for  the  mind  and  soul  of 
man  must  feed,  and  a  home  that  is  not  a  place  where  the  soul 
restores  itself,  and  the  heart  finds  new  aspiration,  is  something 
less  than  the  name  implies.  How  often  do  we  "perish  the 
thought"  of  one  of  the  members  of  the  family,  rather  than 
"nourish"  it  to  better  being?  Discouragement  has  killed  more 
of  our  good  people  than  war,  pestilence,  and  famine.  The 
very  few  who  have  fought  and  won  the  battle  through  applied 
discouragement,  would  probably  have  reached  earlier  and  greater 
heights  if  inspired  by  the  right  sort  of  healthy  and  definite 
encouragement.  It  might  almost  be  well  to  lay  it  down  as  a 
moral  rule  in  every  family — Discourage  one  another  not  by 
word,  or  look,  but  rather  encourage  ever  to  a  better  way. 

With  this  meaning  of  home  in  mind,  it  should  be  clearly  the 
business  of  each  member  of  the  household  to  help  to  produce 
the  most  constructive  and  inspiring  atmosphere  possible.  Each 
home  should  exist  around  an  idea  standing  as  a  vitalizing  influ- 
ence for  self-expression,  not  only  of  each  member  of  the  fam- 
ily in  each  effort  of  the  day,  but  of  the  family  as  a  unit,  and  its 
individual  and  encouraging  relation  to  the  community.  The 
real  home  would  make  of  the  town  an  environment  of  shelter, 
comfort,  nourishment,  and  encouragement,  but  that  blessed 

31 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

stage  of  society  has  not  yet  been  reached  where  more  than  a 
few  people  can  live  intimately  and  harmoniously  for  any  length 
of  time  under  the  same  roof,  and  so  we  turn  to  the  family  unit 
in  order  to  mass  the  domestic  forces  and  demonstrate  the  high- 
est order  of  human  relationship  in  the  State. 

We  believe  no  more  advanced  scheme  of  civilization  has  been 
conceived,  than  the  small  group  of  father,  mother,  and  child,  or 
children,  and  this  it  is  that  makes  the  ideal  home,  but  it  should 
be  a  home  of  the  family,  for  the  family,  and  by  the  family, 
and  not  either  made  by  the  mother,  or  ordered  by  the  father, 
but  rather,  a  co-operative  enterprise  in  which  the  importance 
of  the  individual  is  supreme.  Herein  is  the  marked  difference 
between  the  private  home  and  the  public  institution.  The  for- 
mer gives  freedom  to  the  individual  and  the  motive ;  the  latter 
is  opposed  to  individualism,  giving  authority  to  a  pledge,  or 
order.  Personal  freedom  is  one  of  the  greatest  gifts  of  home 
life,  and  this  cannot  rightly  be  realized  unless  each  member  of 
the  household  feels  a  responsibility  to  take  an  active  and  con- 
structive part  in  the  psychic,  as  well  as  the  physical  creation 
of  that  home  from  day  to  day.  Even  in  the  small  and  model 
group,  we  find  it  no  easy  task  to  make  a  unit  of  the  usual  vari- 
ety of  tastes,  talents,  and  temperaments  therein,  so  that  each 
is  allowed  free  and  wise  development  after  its  kind;  how  much 
more  difficult  it  then  becomes  to  put  together  in  any  advancing 
method  of  home  living,  a  large  and  heterogeneous  mass  of 
human  beings.  Any  such  plan  must  straightway  lose  its  home 
sense  and  the  great  values  that  are  the  result  of  the  right  sort 
of  private  and  domestic  life,  and  become  a  public  association, 
useful  in  its  way,  but  utterly  lacking  in  those  elements  of  the 
highest  order  that  are  found  only  in  the  living,  sympathetic, 
and  helpful  companionship  of  the  few  who  are  living,  working, 
and  hoping  in  what  might  be  called  a  close  corporation  of 
home-making.  Were  it  not  for  the  great  values  that  accrue 
only  from  the  monogamic  order  of  relationship  that  are  too 
wonderful  and  spiritual  to  even  try  to  list  here,  the  making  of 
separate  homes  would  be  a  most  foolish  business  enterprise, — 
for,  from  a  money  or  ease  of  operation  standpoint,  it  proves 
itself  an  extravagance  at  every  turn.  We  might  better  live  in 

32 


WHAT    IS    A    HOME? 

hotels,  or  blocks,  with  one  source  of  supply,  one  management,  one 
method,  but  human  nature  and  life  itself  is  so  vastly  more 
important  than  any  mere  money  consideration,  that  we,  fortu- 
nately, in  this  age  of  the  dollar  standard,  instinctively  cling  to 
the  way  the  Creator  seems  to  have  determined  man  should  live, 
that  he  may  be  best  prepared  to  move  on  to  greater  heights 
of  existence.  The  home  means  to  most  people  a  happier  kind 
of  living  than  has  so  far  been  proved  possible  by  any  larger 
combination.  The  private,  individual,  and  congenial  home 
without  doubt,  develops  not  only  the  highest  kind  of  human 
being  in  civilization,  but  the  most  real  and  permanent  happi- 
ness and  prosperity.  It  is  therefore,  in  truth,  the  cornerstone 
arid  foundation  of  the  nation,  the  cradle  of  the  citizen,  and  the 
bulwark  and  stability  of  society,  and  should  be  the  dearest  place 
in  the  world  for  the  man  and  woman  together,  and  the  best 
place  for  each  alone;  the  choicest  spot  for  the  children  to 
assemble,  and  the  magnet  they  carry  abroad;  the  most  loved 
corner  of  creation  in  which  each  may  find  his  own,  and  where 
all  feel  at  One  with  Life.  But  how  often  the  practical  living 
conditions  are  anything  but  ideal  for  such  united  and  enlight- 
ened effort,  the  trouble  showing  itself  generally  in  the  atti- 
tude and  motive  of  the  individual,  rather  than  in  any  fixed  and 
determined  obstacles. 

To  be  sure  there  are  serious  and  distracting  problems  to 
meet.  Death,  sickness,  poverty,  discord,  and  ignorance  are  facts 
knocking  at  the  door  of  most  of  us,  and  yet  these  and  like 
tragedies  may  be  overcome  by  health,  sympathetic  understand- 
ing, and  a  working  knowledge.  All  of  which  are  to  be  had  for 
right  asking. 

Perhaps  the  two  really  serious  problems  of  the  practical 
home  are  centered  in  the  complexity  and  luxury  of  modern  con- 
ventions, and  the  difficulties  involved  in  and  about  the  domestic 
labor  problem.  The  first  is  a  matter  of  external  demands,  and 
may  be  solved  through  individual  choice  and  independence.  The 
last  is  a  bugaboo  that  has  loomed  up  too  conspicuously  in  the 
foreground  of  home  values,  for  in  the  balance  of  truth,  the  home 
and  its  spiritual  content  rise  far  aloft  of  dependence  and  rou- 
tine, and  the  servant,  so  called,  becomes  a  mere  accessory,  a 

33 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

part  of  the  complexity,  a  factor  of  the  times.  Not  a  sympa- 
thetic, organic,  intelligent  and  essential  element  of  the  re- 
creation center,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end, — an  enduring 
virtue, — but,  rather  a  hindering  check  upon  present  potential- 
ities, a  misguided  factor,  and  an  unorganized  unit,  making  for 
much  of  the  discomfort  and  nervous  tension  under  which  many 
a  home  is  operated.  For  the  servant  who  has  in  her  power  the 
every  detail  of  a  house,  is  commander  over  the  family  atmos- 
phere as  well. 

Can  a  people,  then,  arriving  at  this  realization  and  convic- 
tion, allow  anything  so  trivial,  so  temporary,  so  partial,  as 
that  thing  we  call  'the  Servant  problem"  to  thus  poise  itself 
in  the  foreground  as  to  dissipate  our  thought  from  the  most 
vital  issues  and  needs  of  home  life,  and  thereby  disintegrate 
the  most  sacred  and  useful  institution  of  progress  that  God  has 
revealed  to  human  heart  and  human  understanding? 

No,  we  say — a  hundred  times  no;  for  there  is  a  practical 
answer.  It  merely  needs  intelligent  and  general  application, 
for  which  it  becomes  the  Cause  and  duty  of  every  thinking  man 
and  woman  to  patiently  study  the  situation  that  confronts  us 
in  present  domestic  life,  and  to  do  the  utmost  to  build  up  an 
effective  "Efficiency  System"  that  will  not  only  be  a  solution  for 
the  servant  problem,  so  called,  but  a  method  of  deliberate  and 
scientific  action  for  the  creation  of  the  kind  of  atmosphere  that 
will  best  conserve  the  Home  and  all  that  it  means. 


CHAPTER    II 

GENERAL    SURVEY    OF    THE    HOME 

"The  man  is  the  measure  of  his  home" 

The  homes  of  the  world  may  be  divided  into  three  general 
classes.  Those  made  solely  with  an  attitude  of  hard  and  sheer 
necessity,  the  don't-care  kind,  just  places  in  which  to  sleep  and 
eat,  where  the  poorest  and  most  unholy  atmosphere  abides,  and 
where  life  and  its  consciousness  rises  no  higher  than  mere  ani- 
mal existence  of  the  lower  sort.  The  get-and-devour-what-you- 
can  standard,  which  class  in  truth  is  not  necessarily  the  hovel, 
or  poor  man's  hut,  but  extends  on  up  through  many  higher 
priced  mansions  and  incomes.  There  are  those  again  includ- 
ing a  very  large  class  of  homes  made  by  the  instinctive  home- 
maker:  the  feminine  and  natural  desire  to  have  a  nest  of  one's 
own,  but  too  often  without  the  bird's  knowledge  of  just  how 
to  proceed,  the  result  being  that  there  is  frequently  an  air  of 
confusion,  bad  management,  and  disproportion  generally, 
where  the  longing  of  the  very  makers  themselves  to  get  away 
from  it  all,  is  an  everyday  happening,  and  the  belief  that  there 
is  any  better  way  is  sadly  lacking. 

The  third  class,  while  acknowledging  the  necessity  of  a  place 
to  eat  and  sleep,  and  having  the  instinct  to  try  to  make  that 
place  a  suitable  one,  is  a  home  founded  upon  the  understanding 
of  a  higher  meaning  in  it  all,  and  stands  ready  to  improve  upon 
itself  by  any  measures  that  seem  practical.  This  last  is  the 
class  of  home  to  which  this  book  is  directed.  The  Class  for  which 
the  Experiment  Station  in  Colonia  was  founded.  The  Class 
in  which  the  hope  of  the  present  rests  and  the  salvation  of  the 
future  is  assured.  Not  necessarily  a  moneyed  class,  but  one 
in  which  proper  training,  culture,  and  a  broad-minded  attitude 
make  higher  perception  possible  and  intelligent  effort  inter- 
esting. Such  a  home  may  have  the  very  minimum  to  spend, 
but  it  is  getting  somewhere  with  each  day.  It  is  neither  nar- 

35 


GENERAL    SURVEY    OF    THE    HOME 

row,  nor  trivial.  Surveying  the  subject  in  this  way  a  very  close 
relationship  is  clearly  apparent  between  all  homes,  for  it  is  but  a 
step  between  the  must  be,  the  would  be,  and  the  want  to  be,  home. 
A  step  that  has  been  perhaps  hard  to  take  because  of  our  tra- 
ditional feeling  that  the  last  word  has  been  said  in  home-making, 
and  that  after  all,  housework  must  rest  on  the  drudgery  and 
overwork  of  somebody.  On  the  Servants,  if  one  is  fortunate 
enough  to  have  any.  If  not,  on  Mother,  if  she  be  able,  or  upon 
the  most  willing  one  of  the  family.  From  this  point  of  view 
there  has  been  little  incentive  to  perform  any  more  domestic 
labor  than  was  forced  by  necessity.  Science,  art,  education, 
and  business  took  themselves  off  to  more  public  and  propitious 
fields,  and  the  home  was  left  to  the  women  and  the  servants. 
But  as  man  cannot  make  a  complete  success  of  public  life  without 
the  help  of  woman,  so  woman  fails  even  in  home-making  without 
the  help  of  man  and  all  that  he  represents.  It  seemed  all  very 
well  as  long  as  he  provided  her  with  plenty  of  slaves  to  carry 
out  her  wishes,  and  economic  conditions  demanded  that  she 
keep  herself  in  the  knowledge  of  how  to  perform  all  the  house- 
hold tasks,  for  no  near  source  of  supply  was  hers,  and  very 
often  the  closest  neighbor  was  fully  a  mile  away,  but  when 
the  presence  of  such  necessity  was  lessened,  the  subject  of  house- 
'work  became  largely  the  duty  and  obligation  of  the  servants, 
who  naturally  were  not  of  the  educated  classes  and  had  no 
realization  of  the  scientific,  or  professional  possibilities  of  their 
occupation.  Hence,  there  was  not  only  little  advance  made  in 
the  home  arts  compared  with  those  outside  the  home,  but  the 
world  began  to  hypnotize  itself  to  the  belief  that  education, 
culture,  and  refinement  generally,  could  only  be  had  by  ridding 
one's  self  of  the  performance  of  anything  that  was  declared 
to  be  in  the  nature  of  menial  labor.  "The  higher  life"  must 
necessarily  be  found  only  in  those  things  that  were  above  sub- 
jects akin  to  housework.  As  one  woman  authoress  declared  sig- 
nificantly :  "I  do  all  my  work,  but  I  never  think  of  what  I  am 
oing.  I  always  have  my  mind  on  higher  things." 

All  this  is  the  inevitable  result  of  not  only  the  division  of 
labor  in  society  and  the  isolation  of  related  subjects,  but  the 
separation  of  the  sexes.  In  the  beginning,  men  and  women 

36 


GENERAL    SURVEY    OF    THE    HOME 

worked  side  by  side,  accomplished  each  task  to  the  best  of  their 
united  ability,  and  used  every  means  known  to  improve  upon 
their  first  crude  efforts.  In  our  earliest  records  of  primitive 
life,  man  with  his  weapon,  and  woman  carrying  the  child  on  her 
back,  are  found  working  together,  with  no  division  of  labor  save 
that  while  she  is  tearing  apart  and  distributing  the  meat,  he  is 
watching  and  protecting  the  group  from  wild  beasts.  They 
both  felled  the  trees,  cut  the  stone,  brought  the  food,  and 
guarded  the  family.  With  the  introduction  of  fire,  there  came 
a  change.  Somebody  had  to  watch  the  flame,  and  so  it  became 
the  all-important  object  of  the  woman's  life  to  see  to  it  that 
the  spark  was  never  extinguished.  This  then  was  the  chief 
cause  of  her  indoor  and  isolated  life,  and  not  as  is  often 
supposed,  the  nursing  of  the  child,  for  even  from  the  earliest 
age  there  were  various  contrivances  made  whereby  she  could 
wander  abroad,  work  in  the  field,  build  walls,  carry  stone,  or 
even  hunt,  with  her  baby  ingeniously  strapped  to  her  person. 
It  was  the  fire  that  revolutionized  her  mode  of  life  and  drew  her 
from  the  side  of  man  and  his  pursuits,  into  retirement  and  sepa- 
rated industries.  Man,  on  the  other  hand,  went  his  way  alone,  to 
conquer  and  to  kill,  to  explore  and  fight,  to  clear  the  forests,  and 
to  study  the  elements,  while  woman  remained  near  the  home 
"keeping"  the  fire  and  preparing  the  food.  Thus  she  became  the 
founder  and  developer  of  society,  religion,  and  agriculture,  and 
the  originator  and  inventor  of  nearly  all  the  industrial  arts,  pot- 
ter, weaver,  skin  dresser,  linguist,  artist,  and  doctor.  The  "beast- 
of-burden"  and  the  "Jack-of-all-trades."  His  portion  it  was 
to  bring  back  the  spoils ;  hers  to  conserve  and  elaborate  the 
results  of  the  victory.  This  has  been  the  inheritance  of  to- 
day, the  real  inheritance  of  the  home. 

With  the  introduction  of  steam,  the  second  great  change 
took  place  in  the  life  of  the  home.  The  native  occupations  left 
the  hearth,  and  the  factory  world  came  into  being.  While  this 
great  transition  did  much  to  weaken  the  deftness  and  ability 
of  the  hand,  it  brought  with  it  time  and  opportunity  for  the 
development  of  the  head,  and  the  results  of  university  train- 
ing together  with  a  more  advanced  system  of  public  education, 
have  paved  the  way  for  the  third  great  stage  in  home-making, 

37 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

which  is  the  introduction  of  gas  and  electricity,  and  the  applica- 
tion of  science  to  every-day  needs,  and  while  it  is  still  a  matter  of 
fire,  or  heat,  it  is  no  longer  essential  that  the  heat  be  con- 
stantly watched.  Here,  therefore,  upon  this  central  fact,  begin- 
neth  the  description  of  the  accomplishments  and  possibilities 
of  a  modern  home,  standardized  upon  scientific  lines,  created 
from  day  to  day  upon  art  principles,  having  a  high  educa- 
tional value  at  every  point  of  contact,  and  proving  itself  a 
business  proposition  by  virtue  of  its  ever  growing  list  of  assets, 
and  its  increasing  rate  of  interest  always  forthcoming  and  pay- 
able for  every  effort  put  into  the  plan. 

Not  long  since,  the  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs  in  New 
Jersey,  determined  to  discover,  if  possible,  why  so  many  of 
its  members  were  unable  to  take  active  part  in  the  civic,  social, 
and  other  branches  of  that  association.  Even  when  well  quali- 
fied to  do  so,  and  with  apparently  a  strong  desire  to  help, 
there  would  nevertheless  come  the  reply:  "But  it  is  impos- 
sible, for  I  have  neither  strength,  energy,  nor  money  to  do 
anything  more  than  my  home  obliges  me  now  to  do.  I  never 
know  whether  I  am  going  to  be  left  without  a  maid,  or  not,  and 
my  husband  does  not  approve  of  my  becoming  involved  in  any- 
thing further."  If  not  just  these  words,  something  very  like 
them  was  the  all  too  frequent  response.  It  roused  our  curios- 
ity; what  was  the  matter?  This,  together  with  the  fact  that 
the  Home  Economics  Department  was  the  one  least  popular 
of  all  the  Committees,  made  the  fact  stand  forth  that  the  home 
and  its  ill-advised  conditions  was  the  cause  of  the  inability  of 
women  to  organize  for  more  efficient  club  life.  What  was  to 
be  done?  Clearly  it  was  determined  we  must  find  a  remedy. 
To  this  end  several  thousand  questionnaires  were  sent  to  the 
women  throughout  the  State,  in  the  form  of  a  simple  survey, 
that  would  best  help  us  in  a  right  way  to  proceed.  Although 
it  is  not  possible  to  report  in  detail  the  many  and  interesting 
returns  from  these  questionnaires,  the  very  large  majority  were 
from  women  who  seemed  to  have  more  or  less  sense  of  the  im- 
portance of  doing  something  to  solve  the  home  and  servant 
problem,  but  very  little  hope  or  faith  that  any  practical  remedy 
or  solution  could  be  found  for  a  condition  or  a  class  of  people, 

38 


GENERAL    SURVEY    OF    THE    HOME 

the  status  of  which  they  conceived  to  be  not  only  indispensable  to 
the  survival  of  the  family  and  the  race,  but  an  economic  neces- 
sity in  society,  and  sentimentally  futile  to  try  to  change.  That 
condition  was  embodied  in  the  three  brief,  but  generally  ac- 
cepted statements: 

1st.     "Woman's  place  is  in  the  home." 
2d.     "Woman's  work  is  never  done." 
3d.     "Housework  is  drudgery." 

We  will  agree  to  the  first,  provided  we  be  allowed  to  use  our 
sense  of  vision  from  the  latest  device  and  invention  of  man, — the 
airship — and  declare  from  a  height  that  the  Earth  is  our  home. 
The  answers  to  the  other  two,  is  the  reason  of  this  book,  wherein 
we  hope  to  show  that  even  if  one's  work  is  never  done,  it  may 
with  proper  appreciation  and  encouragement  become  one's  play, 
one's  profit,  and  one's  choice,  and  as  to  drudgery,  that  concep- 
tion merely  exists  from  ignorance  as  to  point  of  view,  and  is 
not  a  necessary  reality. 

As  typical  of  the  many  hundred  replies  received  by  the  Sta- 
tion at  the  beginning  of  its  work,  the  following  sample  is  given 
illustrating  the  very  large  class  of  hopeless,  patient,  conscien- 
tious women  who,  because  they  love  their  husbands  and  children, 
are  striving  to  do  their  "duty,"  even  though  it  be  on  a  mis- 
taken basis  that  housekeeping  is  home-making. 

Twelve  of  the  questions  were  directed  more  or  less  toward 
the  personal  attitude,  twelve  toward  practical  methods,  and 
eight  toward  those  things  largely  affected  by  custom  and  the 
traditions  of  society,  but  all  were  for  the  purpose  of  finding 
out  where  the  woman  actually  stood  in  relation  to  her  own 
domain,  and  from  the  result  of  these  findings  we  would  pro- 
ceed to  systematically  search  the  scientific,  the  commercial,  and 
the  art  world  for  such  means  of  help  and  enlightenment  as  could 
be  made  to  serve  domestic  life. 

The  following  questionnaire,  dated  June  1,  1911,  was  from 
a  good  club  member  in  one  of  our  smaller  cities : 

What  is  your  most  serious  housekeeping  problem? 
Ans.     How  to  meet  expenses. 

39 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

On  what  basis  have  you  built  best  results,  ideal  and  practical? 

Ans.     Self-sacrifice  and  strict  economy. 

What  do  you  consider  the  most  important  problem  to  be 
solved  in  the  home? 

Ans.     How  to  accomplish  all  that  is  expected  of  one. 

Toward  what  end  does  your  greatest  effort  tend?  For  what 
are  you  living? 

Ans.  To  do  my  best  for  my  husband  and  children.  To  make 
them  happy. 

What  is  the  greatest  thing  you  have  discovered  in  relation  to 
home  management? 

Ans.  To  get  up  early.  Have  the  children  do  their  part, 
and  be  systematic  in  the  routine  of  the  work. 

What  do  you  believe  the  Housekeeping  Station  should  prove* 
through  its  labors  to  the  club  women  of  the  State? 

Ans.  It  should  help  solve  the  servant  problem,  and  show  how 
to  cut  down  the  cost  of  living. 

What  mode  of  living  is  the  most  economical? 

Ans.  I  don't  know,  but  think  that  simple  country  house  with 
the  least  help  possible. 

What  is  your  greatest  waste? 

Ans.  There  is  no  waste  in  my  home,  except  perhaps  a  little 
bit  of  gas. 

What  is  the  most  valuable  housekeeping  device  you  have  and 
what  do  you  want? 

Ans.     Gas  stove.     Want  vacuum  cleaner. 

What  has  been  the  chief  hindrance  in  your  housekeeping? 

Ans.     Lack  of  proper  service  and  lack  of  health. 

Can  you  estimate  for  us  the  profit  of  satisfaction  in  your 
home  for  the  amount  of  substance  put  in? 

Ans.     This  is  a  question  I  often  put  to  myself. 

What  complaint  do  you  hear  oftenest  from  other  house- 
keepers ? 

Ans.     The  servant  problem. 

How  many  hours  a  day  do  you  devote  to  your  house? 

Ans.     It  seems  as  if  I  gave  it  all  my  time. 

What  are  the  most  nourishing  foods  taking  the  least  time  to 
prepare  ? 

40 


GENERAL    SURVEY    OF    THE    HOME 

Ans.     Milk  and  cheese,  eggs,  fish,  and  beefsteak. 

What  utensils  are  best  for  cooking,  and  why? 

Ans.     Enamel,  because  easiest  kept  clean. 

What  is  the  best  method  for  cleaning  windows  and  paint? 

Ans.     Soap  and  warm  water  and  plenty  of  good  rags. 

What  is  the  best  treatment  for  grease  in  sink,  etc.  ? 

Ans.     Lye  put  down  once  a  week. 

What  is  your  opinion  of  the  servant  problem? 

Ans.  Poor  ones  should  not  be  paid  such  high  wages,  but  all 
should  be  treated  better  and  taught,  and  more  girls  should  be 
encouraged  into  service. 

Best  method  for  cleaning  silver,  brass,  nickel,  copper,  tin, 
aluminum,  etc.? 

Ans.     Plenty  of  good  old-fashioned  "elbow  grease." 

Best  method  for  cleaning  furniture,  books  and  rugs  ? 

Ans.     Vacuum  cleaner. 

Best  method  for  care  of  ice-box,  stoves  and  chimneys? 

Ans.     Clean  them  all  well  periodically. 

Best  method  for  dish  washing? 

Ans.     Plenty  of  boiling  water,  soap,  and  clean  towels. 

Best  laundry  hints?     Best  stain  remover? 

Ans.  Wash  things  out  as  soon  as  they  are  soiled.  Javelle 
water. 

What  are  your  greatest  laundry  difficulties? 

Ans.  To  get  a  good  woman  who  can  do  the  work  in  less  than 
half  the  week. 

What  is  the  best  Kitchen  floor  you  know,  and  mode  of  care? 

Ans.     Linoleum,  washed  up  each  day. 

What  is  your  idea  of  the  best  disposal  of  garbage? 

Ans.     Have  the  garbage  man  handle  it. 

Best  method  of  purifying  a  cellar? 

Ans.     Whitewashing  once  a  year. 

What  is  your  idea  of  an  ideal  kitchen? 

Ans.  Plenty  of  room  and  air.  "A  place  for  everything  and 
everything  in  it."  The  best  of  fixtures  and  all  in  white. 

What  are  the  problems  of  the  country  kitchen? 

Ans.  Over-amount  of  heat,  over-amount  of  work,  and  care- 
lessness of  people  tracking  in  and  out  and  leaving  things  about. 

41 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

What  is  the  easiest  way  to  serve  a  table? 

Ans.  Put  everything  on  at  once  and  let  people  help  them- 
selves. It  isn't  stylish,  but  it  is  the  only  "easy"  way. 

What  is  the  best  method  of  keeping  one's  hands  in  order? 

Ans.     It  can't  be  done  if  you  do  housework. 

What  part  of  your  home  gives  the  most  satisfaction?  The 
greatest  dissatisfaction  ? 

Ans.     My  flower  garden. 

Ans.     The  kitchen. 

What  Department  of  Housework  do  you  dislike  most? 

Ans.     Dish  washing. 

Have  you  any  suggestions  for  the  older  members  of  the 
family  ? 

Ans.     Except  to  make  their  last  years  as  happy  as  possible. 

What  is  the  keynote  of  your  principle  in  the  raising  of 
children  ? 

Ans.  Obedience  to  parents,  and  to  give  them  all  the  educa- 
tion and  advantages  possible. 

Further  comment  is  unnecessary.^  The  present  conditions  of 
the  average  home  are  embodied  in  the  above,  showing  plainly 
the  importance  of  some  practical  working  out  of  an  ideal  that 
will  not  only  be  a  safety  valve  for  the  woman,  but  a  developer 
for  the  family  and  a  conserver  of  the  home  in  its  best  and 
most  profitable  form.  Such  an  ideal  we  believe  to  be  found  in 
what  is  known  as  Scientific  Management,  which  declares  Science 
and  Art  as  the  fundamental  needs  of  every  thoughtful  en- 
deavor. The  Scientific  way  of  doing  everything,  as  Frederick 
Taylor  says.  The  Scientific  selection  of  the  workman.  The 
Scientific  training  of  the  workman,  and  perfect  co-operation  of 
all  parts. 

We  have  defined  art  as  the  creation  of  what  ought  to  be,  from 
what  is,  and  Science  as  the  proper  method  for  this  creation.! 
Let  us  then  see  the  vision  of  the  new  home  as  it  appears  when 
we  take  it  in  all  its  parts  and  translate  them  to  a  unit  from 
this  basis.  But  before  proceeding  to  those  chapters  which  deal 
with  the  various  sides  of  home-life  in  practical  detail,  let  us 
glance  at  the  following  questionnaire  that  was  filled  out  for  the 

42 


u 


GENERAL    SURVEY    OF    THE    HOME 

Station  in  June,  1912,  a  year  after  the  first  one;  showing  a  very 
different  attitude  which  we  find  does,  and  therefore  can,  exist. 
The  same  questions  answered  by  another  of  the  New  Jersey 
Club  women : 

What  is  your  most  serious  housekeeping  problem? 

Ans.  The  problem  of  waste,  and  of  being  always  ready  for 
the  unexpected. 

On  what  basis  have  you  built  best  results,  ideal  and  practical? 

Ans.     On  the  basis  of  highest  possible  standards. 

What  do  you  consider  the  most  important  problem  to  be  solved 
in  the  home? 

Ans.  The  raising  of  housework  from  its  present  common- 
placejplane  to  one  of  cultural  activity. 

~  Toward  what  end  does  your  greatest  effort  tend?  For  what 
are  you  living? 

Ans.  Toward  appreciation  and  realization  of  Beauty  as  the 
highest  life. 

Ans.     Development  and  accomplishment. 

What  is  the  greatest  thing  you  have  discovered  in  relation 
to  home  management? 

Ans.  That  it  is  a  matter  of  psychology  and  that  every  big 
idea  of  the  world  is  admirably  translatable  for  the  home. 

What  do  you  believe  the  Housekeeping  Experiment  Station 
should  prove  through  its  labors  to  the  club  women  of  the  State  ? 

Ans.  That  better  organization,  management,  and  progress 
of  the  home,  is  the  only  salvation  for  the  life  of  the  State. 

What  mode  of  living  is  the  most  economical? 

Ans.  That  mode  of  living  that  gives  the  highest  and  best 
life  returns. 

Where  is  your  greatest  waste? 

Ans.     Waste  of  time  and  human  energy. 

What  is  the  most  valuable  housekeeping  device  you  have  and 
what  do  you  want  most? 

Ans.  The  Emerson  Efficiency  System  and  the  automatic 
electric  cooker.  Want  a  perfect,  automatic,  properly  moistened 
house-heating  device,  with  smoke  and  gas  consumer  attachment, 

and  an  efficient  mmd. 

. 

43 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

What  has  been  the  chief  hindrance  in  your  housekeeping? 

Ans.  Lack  of  knowledge,  and  lack  of  a  right  source  of 
knowledge. 

Can  you  estimate  for  us  the  profit  of  satisfaction  in  your 
home  for  the  amount  of  substance  put  in? 

Ans.  The  profit  of  satisfaction  is  wholly  spiritual,  and  no 
amount  of  substance  put  in  is  too  great  for  such  results. 

What  complaint  do  you  hear  oftenest  from  other  house- 
keepers ? 

Ans.     Servant  inefficiency. 

How  many  hours  a  day  do  you  devote  to  your  house? 

Ans.     Average  about   six  hours. 

What  are  the  most  nourishing  foods  taking  the  least  time  to 
prepare  ? 

Ans.  Those  foods  as  near  the  natural  state,  as  are  palatable 
and  digestible. 

What  utensils  are  best  for  cooking,  and  why? 

Ans.  The  lightest,  the  most  readily  cleansed,  and  the  most 
perfectly  shaped. 

What  is  the  best  method  in  cleaning  windows  and  paint? 

Ans.  Bon  Ami,  or  Whiting  moistened  with  Alcohol,  and  a 
chamois.  Gasoline  or  Turpentine  for  paint. 

What  is  the  best  treatment  for  grease  in  sink,  etc.? 

Ans.  Keep  grease  out;  or  Kerosene,  or  boiling  water  and 
wood  ashes,  or  lye. 

IWhat  is  your  opinion  of  the  servant  problem  ? 
Ans.  .  Elevate    housework,    standardize    home-making,    and 
professionalize  houseworkers,  and  the  servant  problem  will  take 
care  of  itself. 

Best  method  for  cleaning  silver,  brass,  nickel,  copper,  tin, 
aluminum,  etc.? 

Ans.  Never  let  it  get  dirty,  or  use  the  best  things  known 
for  each,  and  electricity  for  buffing. 

Best  method  for  cleaning  furniture,  books,  and  rugs? 
Ans.     Keep  clean,  or  use  crude  oil  and  hot  coffee  for  furni- 
ture, and  vacuum  cleaning. 

Best  method  for  care  of  ice-box,  stoves  and  chimneys? 
Ans.     Never  let  get  dirty. 

44 


GENERAL    SURVEY    OF    THE    HOME 

Best  method  for  dish  washing? 

Ans.     Electric  machine. 

Best  laundry  hints?     Best  stain  remover? 

Ans.  Use  the  sun  and  morning  dew  as  much  as  possible. 
Electricity  and  studied  motions.  Cold  water  applied  instantly 
for  stains. 

What  are  your  greatest  laundry  difficulties? 

Ans.     Too  many  clothes  to  be  washed. 

What  is  the  best  kitchen  floor  you  know,  and  mode  of  care? 

Ans.  Finest  of  hard  wood,  beautifully  laid,  and  merely  oiled 
or  waxed. 

What  is  your  idea  of  the  best  disposal  of  garbage? 

Ans.     Incinerate,  and  make  bricks  or  fertilizer  of  the  waste. 

Best  method  of  purifying  a  cellar? 

Ans.     No  clutter,  perfect  order,  and  whitewash  occasionally. 

What  is  your  idea  of  an  ideal  kitchen? 

Ans.  A  design  and  arrangement  for  least  possible  expendi- 
ture of  effort,  in  every  necessary  operation,  air  from  four  sides, 
and  an  atmosphere  of  cleanliness,  comfort,  and  beauty. 

What  are  the  problems  of  a  country  kitchen  ? 

Ans.     Old  conditions,  and  ignorance  of  best  methods. 

What  is  the  easiest  way  to  serve  a  table? 

Ans.  With  a  "Table  Butler"  (revolving  center),  and  "Dumb 
Butler"  (a  revolving  side  serving  table). 

What  is  the  best  method  of  keeping  one's  hands  in  order? 

Ans.  To  use  them  intelligently,  and  oil  them  frequently  with 
the  finest  of  oil. 

What  part  of  your  home  gives  the  most  satisfaction?  The 
greatest  dissatisfaction? 

Ans.     The  beautiful  part.     The  shabby  and  worn-out  parts. 

What  part  of  housework  do  you  dislike  most? 

Ans.     The  routine. 

Have  you  any  suggestions  for  the  older  members  of  the 
family  ? 

Ans.  That  they  have  their  own  interests  and  pursuits 
aside  from  those  of  the  young  people,  and  that  they  live 
as  independent,  self-sufficient,  active,  progressive  lives  as 
possible. 

45 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

What  is  the  keynote  of  your  principle  in  the  raising  of  chil- 
dren? 

Ans.  To  cultivate  their  imaginations,  perceptions,  their 
power  to  do,  and  their  reasoning  faculties  to  want  to  do  right. 
Make  them  self-reliant  and  independent. 

This,  you  see,  is  not  only  ringing  with  hope  and  ambition, 
but  it  speaks  with  authority,  in  that  the  writer  has  already 
proved,  certainly  to  her  own  satisfaction,  the  worth  of  the  Effi- 
ciency System,  and  the  truth  that  it  is  a  solution  for  the  many 
problems  of  domestic  life.  A  smoothly  running  home  requires 
neither  an  abundance  of  time,  money,  nor  strength,  but  is  the 
result  of  clear  determined  vision:  of  proper  appreciation  of 
proportion,  and  of  Knowing  How. 


46 


CHAPTER    III 

THE    BUDGET 

"Let  us  make  it  all  straight, 
I  hae  the  means  i*  my  budget" 

"I  am  not  one  thing  and  my  expenditure  another;  that  our  expendi- 
ture and  our  character  are  twain,  is  the  vice  of  society  " 

Few  people  with  any  business  sense  at  all,  start  out  to  do 
things,  or  have  things,  without  a  thought  as  to  expense,  but 
many  there  are  who  count  cost,  not  in  relation  to  life  and  its  real 
needs  and  values,  but  to  things,  and  what  they  think  they  must 
have. 

It  has  been  said  there  are  few  actual  necessities  for  the  life 
of  man.  That  depends  upon  the  man,  and  the  side  of  him  that 
is  being  developed.  One  can  subsist  on  very  little  actual  food, 
but  a  man  is  more  than  his  stomach.  Again  he  can  live  in  the 
crudest  and  often  the  most  unclean  surroundings,  but  how  does 
he  live?  Does  he  gain  in  strength  of  character  and  refinement, 
in  sympathy,  and  appreciation?  And  does  he  advance  in  them 
as  rapidly  as  it  is  normal  that  he  should?  Hunger  is  the  su- 
preme test  of  need,  but  it  should  affect  the  entire  man,  the  soul 
of  him,  and  not  merely  one  of  his  organs.  By  all  means  let  us 
encourage  the  exercise  that  will  make  for  good  healthy  appetite, 
but  let  us  have  only  what  we  really  utilize  and  make  a  part  of 
ourselves.  How  many  of  us  want  half  the  junk  we  gather  to 
ourselves  in  the  course  of  a  year?  We  may  think  we  do  at 
the  moment,  but  it  has  the  same  effect  upon  our  environment  as 
overeating  and  a  bad  selection  of  food  has  upon  our  bodies. 
A  good  clearance  sale  once  a  year,  is  the  only  cure  for  a  condi- 
tion that  should  have  been  prevented,  because  the  giving  away 
of  things  is  apt  to  carry  to  the  other  fellow  the  same  trouble 
from  which  one  is  ridding  one's  self. 

To  study  one's  actual  requirements,  to  know  the  greatest 
need,  and  to  proportion  everything  in  relation  to  that  one  mo- 

47 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

tive,  is  the  object  of  the  budget.  Income  and  outgo  should  be 
guided  by  something  more  than  mere  methods  of  account,  or 
even  any  declared  schedule  of  proper  division,  such  as  20  per 
cent,  for  rent,  25  per  cent,  for  food,  15  per  cent,  operating 
expenses,  etc.  It  is  rather,  a  wise  portioning  for  the  proper 
functioning  of  a  body  toward  the  biggest  idea,  or  goal,  of 
w-hich  that  body  is  capable. 

For  instance:  a  city  is  moving  along  on  the  old  basis  of 
appropriation.  Each  Department  from  time  to  time  requiring 
more  and  more.  The  effort  being  to  make  suitable  allowance  for 
the  unrelated  elements  of  the  place  and  to  keep  up  with  other 
towns.  This  same  City  adopts  the  budget  plan,  relating  its  parts 
for  one  purpose — the  welfare  of  its  citizens — and  puts  before 
itself  certain  things  to  be  accomplished.  It  studies  its  own 
individuality.  It  learns  how  to  improve  upon  its  good  points, 
and  bring  up  its  deficiencies,  how  to  best  operate  for  the  benefit 
of  all  its  people,  and  with  the  least  economic  waste.  It  gathers 
from  other  cities  such  help  and  suggestions  as  can  be  wisely  in- 
corporated into  its  own  life  and  character,  and  although  it 
uses  everything,  it  imitates  nothing.  It  simply  develops  itself. 

Again,  a  family  of  four,  with  say  $5,000  a  year  to  spend, 
pay  the  rent  that  is  asked  in  the  part  of  the  town  supposed 
to  be  the  elite  section.  Keep  three  servants,  as  is  the  custom 
of  the  block,  trade  with  certain  stores  because  of  locality,  fol- 
low the  fashion,  as  far  as  possible,  and  do  what  other  people  do, 
of  the  same  set,  or  class.  A  sheeplike  method,  and  like  sheep 
they  are  very  apt  to  go  astray,  or  to  get  nowhere  in  particular. 
Their  money  comes  and  goes,  they  have  little  idea  of  where, 
or  how,  or  if  they  do  keep  account,  it  is  only  a  means  of  annoy- 
ance. It  teaches  nothing,  for  there  is  no  higher  standard  than 
keeping  up  and  moving  on  with  the  crowd. 

Another  family  of  four,  on  the  same  block,  with  the  same  in- 
come, are  there  because  it  is  the  best  location  possible  for  the 
development  of  that  particular  family.  All  requirements  have 
been  considered,  and  the  decision  made  upon  the  principle  most 
important  in  the  selection  of  a  home.  Namely,  the  health  and 
welfare  of  that  particular  family  life.  The  rent  is  offset  by  a 
number  of  real  advantages  to  be  found  only  there.  Three  serv- 

48 


THE    BUDGET 

ants  are  not  a  necessity,  from  the  fact  that  it  is  better  for  the 
children  to  become  just  as  efficient  and  independent  as  possible, 
and  by  adjusting  the  housework  to  the  ability  of  one  maid,  they 
may  enjoy  thereby  many  advantages,  such  as  music,  and  the 
theater,  or  perhaps  an  automobile.  Purchases  are  made  where 
right  quality  is  assured  at  the  lowest  prices,  and  life  is  lived  for 
itself  regardless  of  fashion,  or  custom.  Such  a  family  would 
prosper  under  the  budget  plan,  for  each  year  there  would  be  a 
definite  object  for  the  financial  program,  with  one  leading  mo- 
tive of  expense,  upon  which  the  whole  family  agree  and  to 
which  every  other  department  of  spending  would  be  regulated. 
This  method  would  not  only  guide  the  expense  ship  in  one 
direction  by  the  co-operation  of  all  concerned,  but  would  be 
a  developer  and  a  controlling  factor  from  year  to  year,  helping 
the  individual  to  decide  not  only  the  purpose  of  his  own  life, 
but  that  of  the  family  of  which  he  is  a  part.  Even  if  the  pro- 
posed program  were  not  followed  exactly,  it  would  give  a  start- 
ing point  and  a  definite  mode  of  procedure  for  the  year,  which 
if  found  good,  or  otherwise,  would  properly  affect  the  next 
year's  thought,  making  the  budget  from  time  to  time  assure  a 
better  return  on  the  investment. 

The  budget  system  for  each  member  of  the  family  is  again  of 
prime  importance,  as  distinguished  from  an  allowance,  or  a 
mere  cost  account,  the  difference  being  that  instead  of  allowing 
an  item  of  expense,  we  recognize  the  right  of  its  existence,  and 
the  importance  of  its  function,  or  the  part  it  plays  in  the  scheme 
of  the  whole.  Many  wives  and  daughters,  "on  an  allowance," 
would  feel  less  like  weak  dependents  were  they  recognized  in  the 
budget  as  performing  a  function  in  the  family  organism,  that 
entitled  them  in  all  justice  to  a  part  of  the  family  income. 
This  difference  in  the  point  of  view  we  find  can  be  brought  about 
by  the  proper  understanding  and  use  of  the  home  budget.  If 
there  is  any  support  for  the  wife  and  children,  they  are  entitled 
to  it,  not  simply  allowed  it,  entitled  to  it  for  three  reasons. 
First,  because  of  their  position  as  wife  and  children.  Second, 
because  "money  of  one's  own"  makes  for  strength  of  charac- 
ter, self-respect,  and  efficiency.  And  Third,  by  proving  their 
ability  to  properly  value  and  handle  it. 

49 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

As  we  only  learn  by  doing,  perhaps  an  illustration  of  how 
a  young  girl  connected  with  the  Experiment  Station,  learned 
to  value  the  use  of  a  budget,  would  best  explain  its  meaning 
to  the  individual.  She  had  "been  allowed"  so  much  a  month, 
with  the  result  that  she  never  had  enough  and  was  seldom 
satisfied  with  her  investments.  The  first  of  the  month  she  would 
give  too  little  consideration  to  cost,  and  often  be  disappointed 
in  the  real  value  of  an  article  purchased,  but  the  last  of  each 
month  she  either  went  without,  or  bought  what  she  didn't  like. 
She  accumulated  what  she  called  a  lot  of  trash,  hard  to  utilize 
because  she  had  followed  the  wrong  kind  of  fashion,  and  had 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  she  neither  dressed  as  well  as  she 
should,  nor  did  the  things  she  might,  even  on  her  modest  allow- 
ance. How  should  she  change  things?  She  first  made  a  little 
survey  of  all  her  needs,  studied  each  part  of  her  dress  and  her 
expenditures,  beginning  with  shoes.  She  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  buying  her  shoes  in  all  sorts  of  places  for  all  sorts  of  modest 
prices,  depending  upon  the  appearance  only,  and  the  fashion 
as  to  shape  and  color,  with  the  result  that  she  was  forever 
having  shoes  that  were  not  comfortable,  discarding  them  when 
only  half  worn,  and  because  of  shifting  her  foot  from  one  shape 
to  another  in  such  promiscuous  fashion  she  had  to  add  to  her 
footwear  cost, — which  in  a  year  was  out  of  all  proportion  to 
her  allowance, — a  fairly  good-sized  chiropodist's  bill,  and  the 
consciousness  that  not  only  were  her  feet  never  properly  shod, 
but  they  were  also  being  injured.  She  therefore  made  a  study 
of  her  foot  and  its  requirements,  the  way  she  used  it,  and  its 
correct  dressing  in  relation  to  her  feelings  and  her  mode  of 
life.  To  her  surprise  she  found  she  could  pay  an  expert  shoe- 
maker his  price  for  perfectly  fitting  and  suitable  shoes,  and 
still  save  money  in  the  course  of  a  year,  beside  feeling  her  feet 
beautifully  and  comfortably  dressed  all  the  time,  with  no  waste 
in  half-worn  footgear.  She  sacrificed  something  in  variety, 
perhaps,  but  what  is  the  use  of  variety  if  none  of  it  is  really 
good.  This  same  process  she  applied  to  her  hats,  and  instead 
of  having  several  half-put-together  head  coverings,  she  crowned 
herself  with  one  charming  and  suitable  bonnet  for  the  season, 
and  felt  her  head  a  constant  joy  in  the  air.  Her  Winter  suit 

50 


THE    BUDGET 

she  found  could  not  be  worn  out  if  she  lived  in  it  every  day  on 
an  average  of  six  hours  for  four  months ;  hence,  it  was  clearly 
bad  management  to  have  more  than  one  at  a  time.  And  as  the 
same  held  good  with  other  gowns,  she  found  with  the  right  care 
in  selection,  she  needed  for  the  year  fewer  garments  of  every 
sort,  to  really  feel  and  appear  better  dressed  than  under  the 
old  method.  What  was  the  difference?  Simply  that  instead  of 
a  haphazard,  hit-or-miss  habit  of  a  day,  she  made  a  yearly 
program,  from  a  year's  outlook,  first  determining  her  purpose 
and  object  in  spending  money,  and  then  by  fitting  together  each 
part  through  a  close  study  of  values.  She_jnake.s_the ..science 
o^j^rj^sing^achjiexjiow  to  live^ 

The  principle  of  the  budget  is  the  same  whether  applied 
to  a  city,  a  home,  or  an  individual.  The  money  available  is  of 
prime  importance,  but  to  make  it  produce  to  its  utmost,  a  defi- 
nite program  is  essential.  The  purpose  in  spending  is  clearly 
to  receive  values  in  proportion  to  the  amount  invested.  These 
values  should  be  given  serious  study,  for  they  not  only  affect 
tremendously  every  human  being  included  within  the  program, 
but  have  besides  a  very  positive  reflex  action  upon  the  life  and 
condition  of  trade  itself,  establishing  standards  that  affect  the 
progress  and  the  principle  of  success  and  morality  in  all  public 
and  private  business. 


51 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  ELIMINATION   OF   THE  SERVANT   CLASS 

"They  who  mould  be  free — 

themselves  must  strike  the  blow  " 

"The  reform  that  applies  itself  to  the  household  .  .  .  must  break  up 
caste,  and  put  domestic  service  on  another  foundation" 

Perhaps  the  most  unique  feature  of  the  Experiment  Station 
is  that  it  has  stood  from  the  beginning  for  the  elimination  of 
the  Servant  Class  as  a  necessary  element  of  our  industrial  and 
social  domestic  order.  In  fact,  it  would  seem  that  there  is  no 
stronger  factor  holding  the  home  from  its  higher  realization 
than  the  one  involved  in  the  so-called  "Servant  problem"  of 
the  day,  irrespective  of  the  fact  that  the  individual  servant  is 
not  to  blame  any  more  than  the  individual  mistress.  The  fault 
lies  rather  in  the  social  order  of  things  that  has  given  us  in 
this  country  and  this  age  a  relic  and  remnant  of  ancient  slavery 
customs.  All  because  we  have  believed  that  certain  occupations 
were  in  themselves  menial,  when  in  reality  it  is  the  manner  of 
doing  only  that  may  be  menial. 

As  only  8  per  cent,  of  the  homes  of  the  country  employ 
servants  regularly,  according  to  latest  statistics  it  would  be  a 
negligible  social  situation  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  just  here 
lies  the  psychology  of  the  trouble.  It  is  what  the  few  of  the 
so-called  "upper  class"  do,  that  is  consciously  and  unconsciously 
made  the  standard  throughout  society.  The  ways  of  the  rich 
may  seem  at  times,  vulgar  and  to  be  condemned,  but  in  most 
cases  the  lesser  rich  would  do  likewise  if  they  could,  and  the 
really  poor  would  gladly  imitate  "their  masters"  if  given  a 
chance.  And  so  this  little  8  per  cent,  of  the  people  set  the 
pace,  as  it  were,  in  the  manner  of  life.  Although  in  reality  the 
money  rich  are  the  most  dissatisfied  and  unhappy  set  of  social 
beings,  their  standards  of  the  externals  of  life  filter  down 
through  the  stratas  of  the  other  90  per  cent,  just  as  surely 

52 


THE    ELIMINATION    OF    THE    SERVANT    CLASS 

as  water  penetrates  the  Earth.  This  it  is  that  gives  that  tre- 
mendous responsibility  that  should  be  felt,  when  money  gives 
opportunity. 

The  long  fight  in  civilization  has  been  against  what  is  known 
as  privilege  and  its  necessary  accompaniment,  slavery.  For 
"my  lord"  to  say  "Do  this"  and  "Da  that,"  "Because  I  com- 
mand you." — "Down  in  the  dirt  before  me!  for  'tis  my  will," 
was  crudely  imagined  to  be  a  sign  of  real  power.  Thus,  "Serve 
me  well,  dog,  or  you  die,"  is  the  attitude  that  has  been  the  in- 
heritance of  the  condition  of  the  present  servant  problem.  A 
problem  with  which  we  are  all  more  or  less  familiar,  but  let  us 
analyze  it  for  a  moment  with  reference  to  its  effect  upon  the 
proper  progress  of  the  home,  and  the  best  interests  of  the 
Servant  Class  itself. 

In  the  first  place :  the  demand  for  house-servants  is  very  much 
greater  than  the  supply,  which  always  lowers  the  standard  of 
industry,  from  the  fact  that  any  labor,  or  material,  is  used  and 
thought  to  be  better  than  none.  The  last  labor  statistics  in 
New  York  City  showed  a  demand  in  that  vicinity  for  100,000 
more  house-workers  than  the  supply.  This  also  makes  for  a 
shifting  from  place  to  place  in  the  hope  of  variety,  or  better- 
ment, giving  us  the  appalling  fact  that  of  the  domestic  workers 
placed  by  the  combined  Intelligence  Offices  of  New  York  City, 
the  average  length  of  time  for  them  to  remain  in  one  place  is 
two  weeks.  Think  what  this  moving  army  of  misfits  must  mean 
to  the  peace  and  serenity  of  the  home  circle,  as  well  as  to  the 
individual  stability  and  character  of  the  Servant. 

Secondly,  the  higher  standards  of  education  have  placed  most 
of  the  home  requirements  on  a  scientific  basis.  Everywhere  thej 
housekeeper  and  home-maker  is  impressed  with  the  necessity  of 
broader  knowledge  in  the  handling  of  the  different  household 
departments.  The  very  health  and  body  of  the  family  depends 
to  a  large  degree  upon  the  understanding  of  the  chemistry  of 
food  and  nutrition,  the  intelligent  practice  of  sanitation  and 
hygiene,  the  comprehension  of  bacteriology,  etc.,  and  while  the 
housekeeper  is  thus  impressed  as  manager,  the  maid  in  the 
kitchen  is  of  a  type  in  most  cases,  that  not  only  has  little  real- 
ization of  these  things,  but  is  possessed  of  a  quality  of  judg- 

53 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

ment  at  variance  with  such  facts.  "Sure,  that's  all  right. 
That's  good  enough,"  is  declared  with  whole-hearted  honesty 
to  many  a  most  unright  act,  and  why  not?  Why  should  the 
girl  be  expected  to  do  otherwise?  She  is  doing  for  others  the 
best  she  knows,  and  often  as  well,  or  better,  than  for  herself. 
The  wonder  is,  that  in  so  many  cases  she  does  do  better  than 
she  knows,  but  it  gives  us  just  at  this  point  between  the  dis- 
agreeing conviction  of  the  mistress  and  maid,  a  house  divided 
against  itself,  which  the  Scriptures  of  old  said  could  not  endure. 

Thirdly :  we  cannot  gainsay  the  fact  that  the  world,  or  public 
life,  is  the  result  of  home  conditions  and  home  impressions,  and 
that  of  all  branches  of  industry,  the  one  operating  under  the 
most  primitive  method  and  upon  the  most  unbusinesslike  of 
systems,  is  that  of  the  average  private  home.  The  chaotic  re- 
sults of  this  up-side-down  state  of  affairs  is  not  to  be  calculated 
in  society.  Our  boys  and  girls  go  forth  unprepared  and  in- 
efficient in  the  competition  of  life,  because  of  the  lack  of  right 
motive,  of  clearly  defined  ideals  and  standards,  and  of  ability 
to  do  with  their  own  hands  what  they  think  they  know  with 
their  heads.  Money-making  has  been  the  great  motive  of  in- 
dustry, and  money-making  with  as  little  work  as  possible,  but 
what  use  is  there  in  money  if  it  does  not  make  a  smoother  and 
happier-running  world  ? 

The  struggle  for  existence,  or  "competition"  has  forced 
rapid  strides  in  the  advancement  of  public  affairs,  which,  how- 
ever, have  neither  been  balanced,  supplemented,  nor  supported  by 
proper  progress  in  the  home,  and  when  the  cause  of  this  danger- 
ously unrelated  condition  is  searched  for,  behold,  it  lies  largely 
at  the  door  of  the  estimate  of  society  as  to  the  Servant  Class. 
The  very  class  who  are  involved  in  the  heart  of  the  situation, 
who  come  closer  to  one's  real  and  intimate  standards  of  life 
than  many  a  friend,  or  relative,  who  are  in  a  position  to  learn 
the  best  and  most  we  have  to  teach,  who  administer  to  our  first 
and  really  intimate  needs  and  come  in  contact  with  us  at  every 
stage  of  life,  is  the  class  that  Society  has  relegated  to  the 
lowest  plane  of  human  beings  claiming  respectability.  House- 
work and  house-workers  are  classified  at  the  very  bottom  of 
industrial  occupations,  the  evolution  of  the  large  and  formative 

54 


THE    ELIMINATION    OF    THE    SERVANT    CLASS 

social  order  thus  resting  upon  this  false  and  inferior  concept. 
Is  it  any  wonder  that  in  so  many  cases  girls  prefer  any  sort  of 
factory,  shop,  or  even  laundry,  or  restaurant  work  that  is  in  the 
nature  of  business,  and  will  take  them  from  out  the  condemned 
class  of  house-servants,  to  give  that  feeling  of  self-respect 
which  can  only  result  from  a  certain  sense  of  freedom  in  one's 
environment?  Is  it  again  any  wonder  that  they  have  created  a 
kind  of  aristocracy  among  themselves  which  establishes  a 
waitress,  laundress,  or  parlor-maid  on  a  much  higher  plane  than 
a  general  housework  girl,  and  thereby  made  the  specialist  far 
outnumber  the  "maid  of  all  work,"  forcing  into  the  latter  posi- 
tion the  girl  of  fewer  and  fewer  attainments  and  less  and  less 
ability,  until  about  all  she  is  certain  of  knowing  is  that  she 
wants  $25  a  month  with  the  best  of  food  and  lodging  added, 
for  her  transient  willingness  to  learn  the  English  language  and 
a  few  of  your  "ways"  ?  And  then  we  wonder  that  our  daughters 
do  not  drift  with  more  interest  and  enthusiasm  toward  the  unfit 
Kitchen  presided  over  by  such  a  priestess.  The  marvel  is  that 
they  are  ever  willing  to  take  their  dainty  habits  and  persons 
from  the  drawing  room  of  music  and  flowers  into  such  an 
unrelated  atmosphere  of  commonplaceness.  For  the  sake  of 
the  girls  of  the  future,  for  the  sake  of  the  homes  that  still  are, 
and  are  to  be,  for  the  sake  of  the  men  and  the  results  of  their 
labors,  for  the  conservation  of  society  and  its  ideals,  and  for 
the  stability  of  the  State  and  our  Standards  of  Education,  the 
Servant  Class,  as  now  existent,  must  be  eliminated.  There  is 
no  possible  future  for  the  advancement  of  either  the  so-called 
servant,  or  the  home,  in  the  present  method.  That  condition 
we  call  the  "Servant  Problem"  cannot  fail  to  become  more  and 
more  serious  with  each  succeeding  day.  Small  as  the  percent- 
age of  servant  keepers  is  found  to  be  in  the  United  States,  the 
basis  of  the  problem  is  so  important  that  it  permeates  in  its 
destructive  influence  every  plane  of  life. 

The  American  people  in  the  interpretation  of  their  ideal  of 
freedom,  saw  fit  to  wage  a  most  deadly  and  effective  war  against 
the  custom  of  slavery  in  this  country.  The  modern  domestic 
servant  is  not  a  slave  in  the  old  sense  of  complete  ownership, 
but  the  evolution  is  not  so  very  far  removed  from  the  status  of 

55 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

her  darker  sister.  To  be  sure,  the  modern  "Slavy"  gives  her 
consent,  but  for  what?  The  sale  of  her  entire  time,  twenty- 
four  hours  a  day,  and  seven  days  in  the  week,  to  do  the  bidding 
of  some  "mistress"  or  "master,"  who  in  many  cases  has  even 
less  consideration  than  if  the  slave  were  permanently  the  prop- 
erty of  the  house.  We  may  argue  that  they  have  their  time 
to  sleep  and  eat,  their  days  "off,"  their  own  way  in  more  than 
is  just  or  healthy,  and  freedom  to  leave  at  any  moment  they 
choose,  that  in  reality  it  is  the  mistress  who  is  the  modern 
slave  in  the  situation,  but  in  truth  it  is  neither  mistress  nor 
maid.  It  is  a  social  condition  that  affects  both  disastrously. 
A  form  of  industrial  contract,  medieval  in  the  extreme,  whereby 
a  girl  is  expected  to  leave  her  own  home  and  natural  surround- 
ings, and  live  under  a  foreign  and  unknown  roof,  isolated  from 
every  interest  of  her  native  life,  ready  to  be  called  upon  by 
night  or  by  day  to  serve  "Me  Lady" — told  to  hurry  and  get 
through  with  one  kind  of  labor  in  order  to  be  ready  for  the 
next,  with  no  standard  of  operation  except  the  will  of  the 
mistress  and  her  traditional  habits.  Oftentimes  with  no  one 
to  speak  to  for  weeks,  and  three  solitary  meals  a  day  taken 
on  a  time  limit  in  the  midst  of  confusion  and  a  none  too  at- 
tractive kitchen.  You  may  give  to  such  a  girl  every  evening 
and  every  afternoon  in  the  week,  if  you  will,  the  best  of  rooms 
and  all  the  privileges  conceivable;  still  the  fact  remains  that 
these  are  but  gifts.  They  are  no  solution.  The  servant  "con- 
tract" calls  for  her  time  by  the  month,  and  she  is  practically 
owned  in  the  situation,  told  to  do  this,  and  do  that,  and  "be 
in"  at  ten  o'clock.  She  is  of  course  free  to  change  her  mistress, 
if  she  will,  but  to  what  end?  Only  to  accept  the  same  "con- 
tract" with  another,  and  perhaps  go  through  the  most  dis- 
tressing and  demoralizing  Intelligence  Office  experience  on  the 
way.  Is  it  surprising  that  the  servant  class  furnish  the  largest 
percentage  of  women  criminals,  prostitutes,  and  victims  of  the 
social  evil?  Who  of  us  would  join  their  ranks  if  it  were  possible 
to  do  anything  else  for  a  living?  None,  as  the  facts  show. 
And  although  there  are  splendid,  able,  and  dignified  women 
working,  and  to  be  hired,  as  servants,  the  fact  remains  that  they 
are  in  this  class — if  not  of  it — where  the  occupation  is  believed 

56 


THE    ELIMINATION    OF    THE    SERVANT    CLASS 

to  be  but  menial  drudgery,  and  the  form  of  Contract  Semi- 
Slavery.  What  a  life!  And  how  absurdly  false  its  interpre- 
tation ! 

Before  the  Experiment  Station  was  established  to  stand- 
ardize housework,  its  founders  made  as  close  a  study  of  the 
servant  situation  as  such  a  confused  field  of  statistics  and 
records  upon  the  subject  allowed,  and  we  were  impressed  with 
the  truth  that  of  the  thousands  of  women  studying  the  science 
of  Home  Economics  throughout  this  country,  not  one  could 
be  traced  who  was  employed  in  domestic  service.  All  were 
teaching,  lecturing,  writing,  or  using  such  knowledge  for  their 
own  satisfaction.  All  well  in  its  way,  but  how  incongruous, 
that  a  set  of  students  should  fit  themselves  for  a  profession,  and 
then  not  practice  it.  It  would  seem  no  more  strange  if  a  class 
of  lawyers,  or  physicians,  were  graduated  in  their  subjects 
merely  to  talk,  teach,  or  take  care  of  their  own  persons  and 
property.  The  answer  to  this,  of  course,  is  the  servant's  posi- 
tion, and  the  "contract"  under  which  she  operates.  No  thinking 
person  will  accept  such  a  combination,  if  there  be  a  possible 
alternative.  The  really  strange  part  of  the  problem  is  that  so 
outgrown  a  system  and  method  should  persist  in  these  days 
of  human  enlightenment.  Why  should  we  conceive  housework 
to  be  the  lowest  of  labor?  And  why  continue  to  believe  it 
necessary  to  keep  house-workers  under  the  same  roof  with  the 
family  where  the  work  is  done?  One  may  point  to  the  success 
of  the  past,  as  far  as  the  second  proposition  is  conceived,  and 
prove  that  our  Marys  and  Mammys  made  life  worth  living, 
and  were  themselves  delightfully  contented,  but  times  have 
changed,  and  the  old  member-of-the-family  sort  of  help,  is  all 
but  extinct.  The  dear  old  Mammy,  and  the  best  of  Mary  souls 
are  replaced  by  a  hit-or-miss  accident  of  the  moment,  who  be- 
cause she  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  a  member  of  the  family,  is  an 
extraneous  and  extravagant  appendage,  costing  the  budgetery 
more,  far  more  than  is  usually  recorded,  because  one  is  apt  to 
calculate  by  figures  only  and  not  by  values.  To  wages  should 
be  added  not  only  food,  light,  heat,  water,  breakage,  and 
wear  and  tear,  but  the  interest  on  the  building  space  needed 
to  accommodate  one  or  more  servants,  the  extra  work  that  each 

57 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

one  brings  into  the  house,  by  virtue  of  her  living  there,  the 
decreased  efficiency  of  each  as  more  are  added,  the  harmonious 
handling  of  each  different  temperament,  the  psychological 
strain  in  having  the  personalities  about  all  the  time,  the  care 
in  catering  continuously  and  in  an  approved  way,  and  the 
feeling  of  responsibility  that  what  is  under  one's  roof  is  under 
one's  guidance,  when  that  is  often  one  of  the  grievances  of  the 
watched-over  one. 

We  have  found  at  the  Station  that  where  one  maid  costs 
$25  a  month  for  wages,  she  costs  $50  in  cash,  and  nearer  $100 
in  liability  values.  The  second  adds  20  per  cent,  more  for 
each,  and  so  on  in  proportion  until  either  the  entire  vitality  of 
the  mistress  is  needed  to  "manage"  them,  or  in  addition  a 
housekeeper,  or  overseer,  is  employed,  making  a  feeling  among 
the  family  of  living  either  in  someone  else's  house,  or  of  keep- 
ing a  kind  of  servants'  hotel  or  boarding  house;  neither  of 
which  adds  proper  atmosphere  to  the  home  life. 

And  so  the  Servant  in  the  house  seems  a  relic  of  past  tradi- 
tions that  is  not  only  outlived,  and  impossible  to  continue  under 
present  conditions,  but  an  unhealthy  and  degenerating  Contract 
for  both  employer  and  employee,  spreading  its  malicious  in- 
fluence from  the  family  throughout  society,  and  our  entire 
educational  standards ;  holding  back  the  home  in  its  industrial 
and  psychic  progress  and  having  a  most  discouraging  effect 
upon  home-makers,  although  a  problem  that  really  need  not 
distress  her  over-much,  for  the  servant  is  eliminating  herself 
rapidly.  The  "mistress"  part  is  to  meet  the  situation,  evolve 
a  better  state  of  affairs  from  the  past  and  the  present,  stand- 
ardize housework  on  the  real  and  high  plane  where  it  belongs, 
and  create  a  class  of  professional  workers,  independent,  self- 
respecting  business  people,  both  men  and  women,  for  house- 
work positions. 

In  the  Chapters  that  follow  we  hope  to  show  from  experience 
at  the  Experiment  Station,  that  this  cannot  only  readily  be 
done,  but  to  prove  by  what  means,  and  how  it  has  been  accom- 
plished here,  as  well  as  the  why  of  its  importance. 


58 


CHAPTER    V 

AN    AUTO-OPERATIVE    HOUSE 

"Na'  house  will  rin  itself,  girl,  but  luk  who,  ye  can,  do!" 

It  is  said  that  no  man  is  indispensable  to  an  institution,  and 
if  at  any  time  it  should  so  appear,  both  the  institution  and  the 
man  had  best  beware,  for  the  law  of  progress  is  that  "Every 
vessel  shall  stand  on  its  own  bottom";  therefore  the  man  will 
either  be  over-burdened  by  the  weight  and  responsibility  of  the 
institution,  or  perchance  by  his  own  egoism,  both  of  which 
are  dangerous  human  balances  to  carry.  The  institution,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  weakened  materially  through  any  such  im- 
pression. Ambition,  initiative,  imagination,  and  ingenuity  are 
kept  at  the  minimum  expression  amongst  the  other  members 
concerned,  and  the  whole  edifice  runs  the  risk  of  toppling  over 
from  its  own  ill-adjustment. 

How  many  thousands  of  women  there  are  who  actually  seem 
to  be  indispensable  to  the  every-day  running  of  their  homes, 
and  who  would  besides,  in  numberless  cases,  ignorantly  and  vol- 
untarily add  to  their  real  obligations,  that  enlarged  sense  and 
habit  of  what  might  be  called  "Mother-dependence,"  which  not 
only  encourages  helplessness  in  the  child  and  in  the  family  as 
a  whole,  but  shatters  the  growing  strength  of  the  home  and 
its  helpful  relation  to  other  homes,  and  proves  itself  sooner  or 
later  deadly  and  dangerous  in  its  reaction  upon  the  mother,  or 
mistress  of  the  house  herself.  To  be  constantly  asked:  Where 
is  my  cap? — Where  did  you  put  my  slippers,  Mother? — How 
do  you  want  the  books  arranged? — Do  you  know  who  has  had 
the  new  time-table? — and  the  many  inquiries  of  like  kind  that 
come  with  each  day's  routine,  simply  steals  into  the  vitality  of 
the  house-mother,  bit  by  bit,  until  in  due  time  the  summing 
up  of  such  trivial  happenings  writes  its  indelible  influence  in  a 
kind  of  nervous  exhaustion,  that  recommends  itself  in  nowise, 
unless  perchance  to  the  few  morbid-minded  who  would  be  mis- 

59 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

erable  in  order  to  call  forth  a  sentimental  sympathy  from  those 
near  and  dear. 

Putting  aside  this  small  class  of  over-feminine  and  unnatu- 
ral beings,  we  find  the  very  large  majority  of  women  looking 
forward  with  dread  to  any  such  possible  break-down.  At  the 
same  time  prematurely  helping  on  the  catastrophe  by  not  being 
willing  or  able  to  apply  the  remedy  after  the  need  becomes  ap- 
parent. There  is  a  haunting  ghost  in  the  thought  of — What  if 
I  become  helpless  next  week,  or  next  year  ?,  and  worse,  far  worse 
is  the  vision  of  what  will  happen  to  the  family  ?  The  doctor,  or 
husband  possibly,  anticipating  the  result  of  such  mental  con- 
fusion, advises  the  lady  to  take  herself  off  to  some  quiet  resting 
place  for  a  time.  Such  advice  frequently  but  adds  to  her  terror, 
from  the  fact  that  she  cannot  picture  how  the  house  could  pos- 
sibly run  in  her  absence,  and  so  she  heroically,  or  more  often 
stupidly,  sticks  to  her  post  in  order  to  be  on  hand  to  continue 
to  carry  a  burden  unnecessarily  heavy,  and  greater  than  ever 
should  have  been  allowed  to  accumulate  upon  her  delicate  shoul- 
ders. If  only  she  knew  someone  to  take  her  place  for  even  a 
short  time!  But  after  vainly  running  over  the  list  of  possible 
substitutes,  she  comes  to  the  conclusion :  "No  one  would  really 
know  how.  I  could  not  rest  thinking  everything  was  being 
turned  upside  down,  or  neglected.  There  is  nobody  who  knows 
either  my  ways,  or  the  many  peculiar  demands  of  this  particu- 
lar house.  It  would  not  work,  and  it  would  cost  me  more  than 
the  rest  is  worth.  No,  I'll  get  along  in  some  way,  or  if  I  break 
down,  we'll  have  to  engage  k  trained  nurse,  but  why  am  I  so 
helpless  in  the  situation?"  Many  a  fantastic  phrase  of  one 
age  is  a  visible  fact  in  the  next.  The  one  of  not  so  very  long 
ago  often  sarcastically  put  to  the  fastidious :  "You  should  be 
carried  around  in  a  glass  case  with  all  the  luxuries  at  hand," 
is  now  practically  illustrated  on  every  good  road  in  the  land. 

"I  wish  the  house  would  run  itself,"  is  a  state  yet  to  be  real- 
ized, but  a  real  step  has  been  taken  to  bring  this  would-be 
condition  about,  at  the  Housekeeping  Experiment  Station.  Our 
ideal,  or  ambition  being  to  so  ordain  the  whole,  that  anyone  with 
a  general  knowledge  of  housekeeping,  might  be  able  to  take 
charge  of  the  average  house,  at  a  moment's  notice.  In  fact, 

60 


AN    AUTO-OPERATIVE    HOUSE 

we  arranged  our  system  with  the  ideal  in  mind,  that  not  even 
a  word  need  be  spoken  between  the  outgoing  and  the  incoming 
manager ;  a  mere  gesture  of  the  hand  as  to  where  to  find  the 
central  desk,  or  starting  point,  being  sufficient. 

If  the  size  of  the  house  warrants,  there  should  be  a  home- 
office  for  the  business  and  clerical  work  of  the  establishment. 
Our  plan  includes  such  a  room  on  the  Ground  Floor,  where  a 
desk,  a  typewriter,  a  dictaphone,  and  several  files  may  be  found. 
In  the  center  of  the  desk  is  a  small  card  index  which  tells  of 
the  location  and  uses  of  the  several  rooms  and  closets  through- 
out the  house,  and  a  general  index  of  material.  All  the  doors 
of  the  house  are  marked  on  the  outside  with  small  metal  num- 
bers  near  the  handle,  that  they  may  not  be  over-conspicuous. 
The  contents  of  the  room  and  its  location  is  indicated  by  a  card 
in  a  small  metal  rim  on  the  inside  of  the  door,  from  which  one 
is  led  to  the  various  lists  of  articles  in  their  respective  depart- 
ments. For  instance ;  a  card  in  the  small  box  on  the  desk  would 
indicate  "Library — Door  3,  First  Floor,"  or  "Linen  Room- — 
Door  7,  Second  Floor."  If  one  would  look  for  Books,  Peri- 
odicals, Playing  Cards,  Towels,  Sheets,  etc.,  they  will  be  found 
Door  No.  3,  First  Floor,  Card  on  inside  of  door,  or  Door  No. 
7,  Second  Floor,  Card  on  inside  of  door,  from  which  cards 
one  will  be  directed  to  the  particular  list  of  Books,  or  Period- 
icals, Playing  Cards,  Towels,  Sheets,  etc.,  desired,  and  any 
necessary  description  of  each,  such  as  Sheets  for  Room  No.  6, 
Sec.  2,  Shelf  4,  or  Towels  for  Bath  Room  A,  Shelf  3,  Sec.  3. 
The  cataloging  of  the  library  follows  the  simplified  plan  of  that 
used  in  the  Public  Library,  and  in  fact  was  listed  by  one  trained 
in  that  subject.  That  of  the  other  rooms  of  the  house,  and 
in  truth  the  entire  system,  was  worked  out  by  our  local  club 
with  the  idea  of  its  proving  a  self-showing  system  to  the  stran- 
ger who  would  take  charge  at  a  moment's  notice,  and  a  simple 
radiating  method  needing  the  least  possible  time  in  the  using 
and  the  care  of  it. 

As  an  illustration,  the  incoming  stranger  might  suddenly 
want  a  spool  of  white  cotton,  or  a  piece  of  court-plaster. 
"Spools  of  thread"  would  be  indexed,  Door  8,  Second  Floor, 
Inside  Card,  which  card  would  show  "white  cotton,  Drawer  6, 

61 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

Sec.  4."  If  court-plaster  happened  to  be  too  insignificant  to 
list  in  the  main  list,  it  would  naturally  be  looked  for  in  the 
"Medicine  Closet,"  Door  7,  Second  Floor,  Inside  Card,  from 
which  point  it  would  be  listed  Shelf  2,  Box  3,  and  upon  opening 
the  box  if  more  than  court-plaster  happened  to  be  part  of  its 
contents,  a  further  card  on  the  cover  would  show  its  location, 
and  the  kind  to  be  found. 

Or  take  the  whereabouts  of  molasses,  or  sugar,  General  In- 
dex says :  "Kitchen,  Door  9,  First  Floor."  Inside  card,  "Mo- 
lasses, Cupboard  6,  Shelf  4,  Sec.  1."  Sugar,  Door  B,  Inside 
Card,  from  which  one  would  see,  "Sugar,  Shelf  2,  Sec.  1." 

All  this  may  seem  unnecessarily  complicated,  confusing,  and 
time  consuming,  but  so  did  the  first  index  and  cataloging  sys- 
tem seem  to  the  Public  Library  and  the  shop.  The  smaller 
institutions  particularly  were  loath  to  fall  in  line  with  the  adop- 
tion of  what  seemed  to  them  a  plan  suited  only  to  the  larger 
and  more  complex  situation  where  great  quantities  of  mate- 
rial were  handled  and  where  there  were  frequent  changes  among 
the  operators.  It  took  some  time  to  realize  its  universal  appli- 
cation to  both  the  big  and  the  little  enterprise,  but  where  now 
can  be  found  an  up-to-date  shop,  library,  business,  or  public 
institution,  without  some  such  system?  No  matter  how  small 
the  start,  to  succeed  they  must  be  on  a  business  basis,  which 
includes  all  the  independence  and  auto-operation  possible.  The 
frequent  difficulty  has  been,  however,  that  the  various  card- 
cataloging  systems  have  become  so  involved  that  they  have 
not  only  needed  to  be  carefully  studied  in  the  beginning,  but 
each  operator  has  suggested  the  possibility  of  still  another  to 
do  the  "checking  up,"  as  it  were,  until  the  fault  of  "too  much 
red  tape"  has  discouraged  the  would-be  orderly  manager.  In  our 
house  system  we  have  tried  to  avoid  the  possibility  of  this  dan- 
ger, by  keeping  in  mind  what  seemed  to  be  the  simplest  method 
consistent  with  the  thought  of  a  home  running  itself. 

A  colored  diagram  showing  at  a  glance  the  very  root  and 
design  of  the  index  system  is  at  the  housekeeper's  desk,  and  any 
and  all  information  concerning  the  home,  or  the  family,  may 
be  here  classified.  Each  Department  is  made  to  branch  out, 
as  it  were,  in  the  nature  of  a  tree.  Each  branch  in  turn  direct- 

62 


AN    AUTO-OPERATIVE    HOUSE 

ing,  or  guiding  to  the  twig  form  of  index,  until  as  each  separate 
leaf  is  individualized  and  located,  so  each  article  in  the  home 
is  ordered  and  tagged  in  its  proper  place  and  related  to  the 
economic  arrangement  of  the  whole. 

Such  a  plan  does  not,  as  may  at  first  appear,  either  delay, 
or  interfere  with  the  process  of  housework.  On  the  contrary,  we 
have  found  that  while  one  cannot  trace  the  tree  with  quite  the 
speed  of  the  squirrel,  it  nevertheless  makes  for  better  time, 
certainty,  directness,  and  independence  than  the  old  kind  of 
order  where  somebody  must  carry  it  all  in  her  head,  and  show, 
or  direct  each  inquirer.  Such  a  system  also  adds  an  incentive 
to  keep  things  in  order;  where  even  the  child  realizes  he  is 
going  to  put  the  whole  scheme  out  of  place  by  neglecting  to 
keep  something  as  it  should  be  kept.  He  at  once  feels  a  sense 
of  responsibility  and  importance  to  do  the  right  and  orderly 
thing,  particularly  if  he  has  taken  part  in  the  plan  from  the 
beginning.  Added  to  this,  it  relieves  enormously  that  burdened 
sense  of  responsibility  which  holds  so  many  home-women  in 
the  vice  of  the  health-wearing  feeling  of  having  to  meet  the 
over-numerous,  little,  wearing,  local  and  unnecessary  demands 
of  the  hour. 

The  right  sort  of  home-maker  will  always  feel  the  real  wel- 
fare of  the  home  largely  dependent  upon  her,  and  an  obligation 
to  give  of  her  best  toward  the  proper  development  and  atmos- 
phere of  what  should  be  the  highest  spiritual  standard  possible 
for  the  family  life,  but  to  believe  she  must  at  the  same  time 
personally  keep  track  of  every  duster  and  button-hook  is  mini- 
mizing her  ability  to  reach  greater  and  more  creative  heights 
of  usefulness,  and  maximizing  her  tendency  to  deteriorate  into  a 
mere  domestic  drudge. 

The  periodical  house-cleaning  spasms  which  housewives 
have  exhibited  from  time  to  time,  have  been  largely  prompted 
by  that  desire  to  free  one's  self  from  the  accumulated  confusion 
and  disorder  of  things.  To  know  that  everything  is  in  its 
proper  place  gives  a  restful  feeling  to  most  people,  but  in  how 
many  houses  is  this  restful  feeling  a  permanence?  Appar- 
ently very  few,  due  in  great  degree  to  the  fact  that  the  family 
are  not  constantly  "lined  up,"  as  it  were,  to  a  business-like 

63 


PRINCIPLES    OF   DOMESTIC   ENGINEERING 

point  of  view  of  the  home  in  this  particular,  or  to  any  definite 
system  in  which  each  member  is  equally  involved,  but  rather 
are  living  under  a  vague  notion  that  somebody  will  keep  the 
house  straight.  The  only  weapons  needed  are  criticism,  insist- 
ence, and  mutual  dependence.  Scientific  management  rests  upon 
a  well-ordered  independence  in  operation,  and  unless  a  house  is 
started  upon  this  road,  it  will  lack  the  fundamental  element 
that  makes  for  the  success  of  the  modern  standardized  home 
environment  which  is  created  not  by  any  one  member  of  the 
family,  but  ordained  and  sustained  by  each  one  thinking,  doing, 
and  being  his  utmost  on  a  co-operative  productive  basis :  busi- 
ness-like in  its  practical  foundation,  but  surpassing  all  busi- 
ness expression  in  its  own  natural  and  poetic  possibilities. 


CHAPTER    VI 

THE  BUSINESS   OF    PURCHASING 

"Human  wants  of  dearest  value  hang  on  slender  strings" 

"We   must  not   make  believe  with  our  money,  but  spend  heartily 
and  buy  UP  and  DOWN" 

The  business  of  purchasing  involves  first  of  all  a  knowledge 
of  values.  To  decide  what  is  really  wanted,  to  appreciate  the 
worth  of  the  article  when  found,  and  to  utilize  it  to  the  best 
possible  advantage,  is  the  self-evident  standard  to  be  attained 
in  the  study  of  how  to  spend.  But  what  do  we  mean  by  the 
knowledge  of  values?  For  within  this  many-sided  and  most 
important  phase  of  this  subject,  the  housekeeper  is  most  deeply 
involved.  To  know  not  only  what  is  of  immediate  worth,  but 
how  one's  purchases  will  affect  other  consumers,  the  distrib- 
uters, the  producers,  and  trade  at  large,  thereby  reaching  out 
and  molding  the  future  conditions  under  which  purchasing 
must  be  done.  This  it  is  that  should  make  for  the  final  de- 
cision in  the  business  of  buying.  Every  article  that  is  bought 
under  any  circumstances  whatsoever,  no  matter  how  trivial  or 
insignificant,  affects  the  Market.  As  a  pebble  thrown  into  the 
stream  plays  upon  the  water,  starting  from  a  tiny  center,  but 
disturbing  a  larger  and  larger  circle  with  each  succeeding 
ripple.  Take,  for  instance,  the  "staff  of  life."  We  must  all 
buy  bread,  or  such  material  as  will  produce  it.  Of  the  latter, 
flour  is  the  essential  ingredient ;  the  one  article  purchased  by  a 
larger  number  of  housekeepers  than  any  other  single  thing  in 
the  house.  The  value  of  bread  is  to  feed  in  order  to  nourish 
the  body.  How  many  of  us  know  the  quality  of  wheat  best 
suited  for  this  purpose?  To  be  sure,  we  know  names  and  labels 
that  stare  at  us  from  package,  fence,  and  page,  each  declaring 
itself  "the  best"  and  "the  only  one  of  its  kind  on  the  market," 
but  how  little  this  means  in  the  face  of  our  ignorance  as  to  how 
it  should  look,  taste,  and  feel,  and  under  what  processes  it 

65 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

should  be  cleansed,  and  the  changing  conditions  of  trade  under 
which  we  buy.  You  may  say  that  a  good  Firm,  or  House,  is 
sufficient  guarantee;  that  people  who  have  built  up  a  business 
on  a  reliable  and  honest  foundation,  have  made  a  special  study 
of  their  subj  ect  and  the  best  method  of  its  production ;  they 
therefore  "stand  back  of  it"  at  all  times  with  the  strength  of 
their  reputation  and  cannot  afford  to  offer  you  nor  allow  you 
even  to  purchase  an  inferior  article  under  their  label.  But  there 
are  two  things  always  to  keep  in  mind  just  here.  That  the 
manufacturer  himself  is  not  infallible  as  to  what  is  the  very  best 
even  in  his  own  line.  And  also  in  the  last  analysis  the  pur- 
chaser is  his  standard  of  quality.  "What  the  people  want"  is 
the  curse  of  the  market,  as  it  is  the  curse  of  the  press,  the 
stage,  and  the  economic  and  art  world  generally.  But  as  there 
is  no  curse  that  does  not  carry  with  it  the  elements  of  a  bless- 
ing, or  in  other  words,  no  destructive  process  that  cannot  be 
made  the  basis  of  construction,  so  "what  the  people  want"  may 
be  our  great  adjuster  and  the  true  standard  of  excellence.  But 
they  must  know  what  they  want  and  not  merely  desire,  or  be 
made  to  drift  toward  what  is,  in  an  aimless  and  irresponsible 
mood. 

Wheat  is  a  basic  form  of  supply  that  might  be  called  the 
universal  food  for  man  in  all  countries  and  under  almost  all 
conditions.  It  will  give  him  the  perfect  "balanced  rations"  that 
his  body  demands,  with  the  addition  perhaps  of  some  fat,  but 
that  does  not  mean  that  one  will  not  starve  to  death  on  the 
bread  that  is  set  upon  most  of  the  tables  of  the  country,  and 
why?  Simply  because  the  manufacturers  of  flour  in  catering 
to  the  demand  of  the  consumer  for  a  white  anemic  and  per- 
verted food,  have  made  it  all  but  impossible  to  buy  the  whole  of 
the  wheat  in  such  form  as  should  best  be  valued  by  the  house- 
wife. 

In  the  Book  of  Books,  we  are  told  that  man  came  from  "the 
dust."  In  a  handful  of  earth  there  are  practically  sixteen 
natural  elements,  and  curiously  enough  there  is  to  be  found 
the  same  sixteen  in  proper  proportion  in  every  perfect  grain  of 
wheat.  It  would  therefore  seem  to  need  but  little  imagination 
to  picture  what  would  be  the  result  when  not  only  nine  of  these 

66 


THE    BUSINESS    OF    PURCHASING 

elements  are  removed  in  modern  milling,  but  the  seven  remain- 
ing which  are  minus  the  heart  of  the  grain,  put  through  a 
patent  process  of  bleaching  and  heating  that  results  in  not 
only  a  partial  food,  but  one  in  which  subtly  lurks  all  manner  of 
danger  to  the  body,  anemia,  neurasthenia,   constipation   etc., 
from  the  fact  that  the  system  requires  for  its  right  metabola- 
tion,  the  entire  list  of  elements  in  the  same  relation  and  pro- 
portion that  were  placed  in  the  wheat  by  Nature  herself.     It 
therefore  behooves  the  housewife,  if  she  would  really  nourish, 
as  well  as  simply  feed  her  family,  to  know  the  actual  value  of 
flour;  to  appreciate  its  appearance,  its  taste  and  flavor,  and 
to  become  skilled  in  its  use.    In  the  Chapter  on  the  Preparation 
of  Food,  we  will  repeat  this  most  important  lesson.     Here,  we 
propose  merely  to  suggest  certain  neglected  points  in  the  con- 
sumer's sense  of  responsibility  as  a  purchaser.     Demand,  truly 
enough,  regulates  the  market,  but  that  demand  if  it  is  to  make 
for  better  conditions,  must  be  intelligent,  with  the  realization 
of  what  the  material  purchased  is  designed  to  accomplish,  the 
true  quality  of  each  article  must  be  recognized,  and  its  proper 
use  demonstrated,  if  we  would  do  our  part  in  establishing  "what 
the  people  want,"  thereby  protecting  ourselves  and  others  from 
the  dangers  of  a  perverted  market  and  the  exaggerated  cost  of 
artificial  living.     Just  so  long  as  we  purchase  in  a  mechanical 
sort  of  way,  believing  we  have  the  right  thing  simply  because 
we  have  asked  the  dealer  for  "the  best,"  or  for  some  "brand" 
or  make,  unknown  to  us  except  by  name,  there  is  grave  danger 
of  the  consumer  being  exploited  to  the  full  limit  of  her  sus- 
ceptibility.   Only  by  becoming  an  intelligent  purchaser  can  she 
relieve  that  very  large  part  in  the  cost  of  living  which  is  the 
result  of  her  own  neglect  of  the  essential  study  of  values.     For 
there  is  a  great  waste  ever  going  on,  because  of  her  thought- 
less isolation   from  the  three-part  movement  of  the  wheel  of 
commerce,  of  which  she  should  be  the  enlightened  controller, 
instead  of,  as  so  often  happens,  the  cajoled  victim.    The  great 
wheel  in  which  the  producer  forms  the  hub,  or  central  pivot, 
the  distributer  the  various  spokes,  and  the  consumer  the  rim. 
The  wheel  that  not  only  requires  the  proper  co-operation  of  its 
rim,  through  a  complete  readjustment,  but  the  doing  away  of 

67 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

the  surplus  spokes  that  have  too  heavily  weighted  its  would-be 
easy  movement.  For  these  extra  spokes  have  almost  taken  the 
place  of  the  rim  in  the  middleman's  effort  to  push  his  part  to 
the  limit.  Faulty  distribution  is  the  problem  of  its  weight  and 
waste  in  action.  An  unrelated,  unformed  and  unorganized  rim 
the  cause  of  this  waste. 

What  encouragement  is  there  to  raise  apples,  or  make  cloth 
when  it  is  but  chance  if  it  proves  not  to  be  a  loss  for  the  pro- 
ducer to  get  his  goods  in  sight  even  of  the  consumer?  Not 
long  since  a  barrel  of  apples  was  purchased  by  a  friend  of  the 
writer  for  $5.95,  which  contained  a  note  from  the  grower  say- 
ing: "This  fruit  brought  me  57c.  What  did  you  have  to  pay 
for  it?"  Counting  25  cents  for  the  barrel  and  30  cents  for 
transportation,  the  most  we  could  figure  for  actual  cost  was 
$1.12.  Where  did  the  $4.83  profit  come  in?  Surely  not  to 
any  one  agent,  but  undoubtedly  much  of  it  was  divided  between 
some  unnecessary  middlemen.  The  surplus  spokes  of  the  wheel, 
unfortunately,  cannot  be  removed  by  any  one  repair  shop,  but 
must  be  eliminated  through  the  rim  and  the  hub  coming  into 
better  and  more  efficient  relation.  The  Parcel  Post  is  hopeful — 
although  unreliable  and  ill-adjusted,  as  yet,  it  should  help 
in  our  need  for  a  shorter,  simpler  and  more  direct  route  from 
the  farm  to  the  kitchen  door.  Nothing  can  so  quickly  bring 
this  about  as  an  intelligent  demand  on  the  part  of  the  pur- 
chaser for  such  a  route,  and  nothing  will  focus  our  attention 
upon  the  practical  working  out  of  such  a  system  so  readily  as 
to  realize  our  place  and  function  in  a  more  easy  revolution  of 
this  wheel.  The  consumer  must  not  be  circled  around  un- 
knowingly, for  the  time  has  come  when  she — (and  we  say 
she,  because  the  woman  is  the  purchasing  agent  for  the  home)  — 
is  the  only  salvation  in  the  economics  and  ethics  of  trade.  The 
dealer  is  helpless.  The  shop  is  but  the  medium  between  the 
fixed  conditions  of  larger  combines  which  are  the  wholesale 
standards  and  her  whim,  her  prejudice  and  her  demands.  To 
be  sure,  it  is  a  distributing  center  and  as  such  one  of  the 
spokes,  undeniably  (in  lesser  numbers  than  now  exist)  a  neces- 
sary spoke,  but  it  is  in  her  power  not  only  to  control  the  stand- 
ards of  the  retail  business  in  a  town,  but  to  close  them  out 

68 


THE    BUSINESS    OF    PURCHASING 

when  it  be  her  will.  She  may  combine  to  purchase  her  material 
co-operatively,  or  she  may  thoughtlessly  drive  the  poor  dealer 
into  greater  expense  and  waste  than  competition  can  endure,  by 
her  fastidious  desires  for  elaborate  wrapping,  costly  packages, 
a  luxurious  environment  and  frequent  and  expensive  delivery, 
as  is  becoming  a  necessity  even  in  the  small  store.  Co-opera- 
tive buying  while  appealing  to  us  of  the  Housekeeping  Station 
as  a  legitimate  and  practical  method  of  cutting  down  the  cost 
of  living,  at  the  same  time,  suggests  a  kind  of  action  in  retreat, 
a  running  away  from  actual  responsibilities  in  the  social  and 
economic  world  of  trade  of  which  we  as  consumers  are  an 
integral  part. 

Co-operation,  yes ;  first,  last  and  all  the  time,  but  rather  an 
educated  co-operation  of  the  normal  purchasing  units,  that  go 
to  make  up  a  healthy,  prosperous  business  in  the  town  in  which 
each  is  a  factor.  This  can  be  developed  only  by  the  various 
parts  of  that  business  coming  into  sympathy  and  understand- 
ing with  each  other.  A  beginning  has  been  made  in  this  direc- 
tion, among  the  merchants  of  various  cities,  but  so  far  as  we 
have  any  knowledge,  the  consumers,  or  the  women  of  the  town 
have  not  been  included  in  these  meetings  for  the  advancement 
of  trade.  And  yet  is  there  any  reason  why  the  Woman's  Club, 
the  Manufacturer's  League,  the  Growers'  or  Farmers'  Associa- 
tion, and  the  Board  of  Trade,  should  not  all  come  together  and 
study  their  economic  relation  to  each  other?  And  more  than 
this,  the  Woman's  Club  is  the  agent  to  initiate  just  such  a 
movement.  A  combine  of  this  sort  would  not  only  be  of  in- 
estimable value  to  the  business  of  the  town,  but  to  the  woman 
nature  as  well  and  to  the  working  out  of  the  home  budget.  For 
it  is  her  weakness,  we  may  say,  to  consider  the  grocer  on  the 
corner  and  the  little  shop  in  the  middle  of  the  block,  from  a  too 
personally  sympathetic  point  of  view.  The  good  of  the  town, 
and  the  prosperity  of  business  itself  is  that  there  should  be 
fewer  and  better  grocers,  butchers  and  bakers.  In  almost  every 
town  of  New  Jersey  there  are  so  many  of  these  duplicate  shops, 
that  they  not  only  destroy  each  other,  but  the  character  and 
standards  of  trade  that  would  be  possible  were  it  not  for  the 
competition  that  is  almost  illegitimate  in  its  closeness,  express- 

69 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

ing  itself  in  one  way  through  "cut  prices"  and  in  another 
through  a  form  of  "Bargain  Sales."  If  ever  a  financial  and 
social  danger  should  be  avoided,  it  is  the  premeditated  bargain 
sale.  What  we  believe  to  be  "below  cost"  to-day  has  subtly 
concealed  within  its  plan  the  greater  expense  and  waste  for 
the  purchaser  of  to-morrow.  The  consumer  has  no  idea  of  the 
moral,  as  well  as  economic  effect  of  this  universal  desire  to  get 
something  for  nothing,  or  she  would  be  ashamed  to  purchase 
from  the  average  Bargain  Store,  or  Counter.  This  alone  is  a 
subject  of  interesting  study  for  any  woman's  club  interested  in 
the  civic  questions  of  the  day,  but  too  large  a  problem  to  have 
more  than  mention  in  this  Chapter. 

The  business  of  purchasing,  as  we  see  it  from  the  scientific 
housekeeping  point  of  view,  resolves  itself  then  into  something 
more, — even  for  one's  own  protection, — than  supplying  the 
actual  material  needed  to  run  the  home.  It  means  keeping 
in  close  touch  with  the  market.  It  means  knowing  the  right 
sort  of  goods  to  be  produced,  and  the  methods  best  suited  to 
their  distribution.  It  means  taking  an  active  part  in  the  busi- 
ness of  the  town  and  doing  one's  utmost  to  protect  and  support 
the  merchants  who  prove  themselves  worthy  from  an  efficient 
and  ethical  standpoint.  The  honest  dealer  is  too  often  wiped 
out  of  existence  because  of  the  ignorance  and  thoughtlessness 
of  the  average  woman  customer,  who  requires  him  to  keep  an 
up-to-date  and  even  luxurious  shop.  To  have  a  large  and 
varied  stock  of  goods.  To  wait  upon  her  every  mood  with  time 
and  courtesy,  sending  orders  several  times  a  day  to  the  other 
end  of  town  should  her  memory  happen  not  to  be  of  the  best, 
and  while  he  is  trying  to  make  good  in  the  situation,  she  will 
without  thought  of  the  consequences  walk  across  the  street,  or 
next  door,  and  buy  large  orders  of  inferior  goods,  perhaps  at 
short  weight  and  under  unsanitary  conditions,  because  of  a 
"cut  rate"  sign  in  the  window  of  some  staple  article  that  can- 
not possibly  be  sold  legitimately  under  the  "one  price  system" 
except  at  a  loss  that  only  those  understanding  the  trade  trick 
fully  appreciate. 

Of  course  we  do  not  mean  that  to  be  simply  honest  is  suffi- 
cient reason  for  support.  A  dealer  must  also  be  efficient,  know 

70 


THE    BUSINESS    OF    PURCHASING 

his  business,  and  do  his  best  if  he  expects  the  world  to  help  him 
succeed,  but  such  a  standard  applies  just  as  well  to  the  cus- 
tomer. It  is  her  business  to  know  that  a  bushel  of  potatoes,  for 
instance,  should  weigh  60  Ibs. ;  that  the  law  says  all  dry 
measures  should  also  have  certain  weight.  She  should  know 
that  an  ordinary  hen's  egg  may  and  does  often  weigh  3  ounces, 
and  that  many  of  the  eggs  on  the  market  weigh  from  1  to  2 
ounces  apiece,  which  makes  the  cost  of  one  dozen  three  times 
what  might  be,  in  actual  egg  material.  She  should  know  the 
real  weight  of  nutritive  value  in  package  goods  and  whether 
the  added  convenience  in  handling  is  worth  the  price.  A  great 
cracker  concern  has  lately  expended  thousands  of  dollars  for 
machinery  that  would  fill  the  same  sized  box  with  one  less 
cracker  than  formerly.  Such  an  act  is  significant.  To  elimi- 
nate waste  everywhere  is  immensely  worth  while,  but  the  con- 
sumer must  be  ever  on  the  alert  that  she  be  given  her  money's 
worth  at  all  times  in  the  value  of  the  material  as  well  as  in  bulk, 
or  in  proper  count.  A  dozen  apples  may  weigh  3  Ibs.,  or  they 
may  weigh  8  Ibs.  A  small  bottle  of  olive  oil  at  25  cents  in 
actual  measurement,  without  considering  quality,  costs  $7.80  a 
gallon,  when  the  very  best  may  be  bought  in  the  retail  market 
for  $3,  or  75  cents  a  quart  measure.  Labels  of  course  are  to 
be  read  and  studied  as  to  their  meaning,  but  they  tell  only  a 
tiny  part  of  the  story  of  the  goods,  and  since  "the  back  of  the 
Pure  Food  Law  has  been  broken,"  they  tell  so  little  that  one  is 
not  safe  in  putting  even  slight  faith  in  their  meaning.  No, 
there  is  no  escape  for  the  consumer  except  to  know  what  is 
meant  by  the  business  of  purchasing.  Education  from  all  sides 
is  her  only  protection  in  the  great  problem  of  the  high  cost  of 
living.  Its  solution  is  concerned  more  with  the  women  than 
with  any  other  one  factor.  To  guarantee  herself  right  values, 
she  must  do  her  part  to  protect  the  home  in  its  material  and 
supplies,  and  in  the  plan  of  the  budget  that  is  the  means  of 
control.  It  is  just  as  interesting  to  study  how  things  are 
made  and  under  what  conditions,  as  it  is  to  study  foreign  coun- 
tries. It  is  as  fascinating  to  appreciate  proper  textiles  and 
their  qualities,  as  to  design  them.  It  is  as  useful  to  know,  for 
instance,  the  effect  of  cold  storage  upon  foods,  its  use,  and  its 

71 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

abuse,  and  the  very  great  part  it  plays  in  the  economic  and 
health  problems  of  the  day,  as  to  know  the  science  of  cookery. 
It  is  as  necessary  to  fight  for  proper  inspection  of  our  food 
supply,  and  the  unadulterated  and  reliable  or  staple  form  of 
all  material  that  goes  to  make  a  home,  as  to  fight  for  suffrage ; 
for  the  right  of  suffrage  without  knowledge  of  conditions  lessens 
its  greatest  value.  These  things  are  big  subjects  for  women; 
that,  however  they  may  desire  to  evade  them,  cannot  with  im- 
punity be  dismissed  with  a  phrase.  It  is  the  woman's  work  of 
the  future.  She  is  the  last  word,  the  responsible  monitor,  and 
the  tribunal  of  man  and  his  prosperity,  and  if  she  has  any 
real  and  unselfish  love  for  him  who  is  nearest  her  heart,  or  the 
womanly  conception  needed  in  the  making  of  the  larger  home 
of  the  future,  she  will  realize  that  these  things,  as  well  as  her 
own  protection,  are  dependent  upon  her  better  knowledge  of 
the  values  of  life.  The  study  of  the  business  of  purchasing, 
and  all  that  is  involved  in  knowing  what  she  wants,  in  ap- 
preciating form  and  quality,  and  in  being  able  to  properly 
utilize  the  material  of  her  choice,  is  a  subject  of  interest  to 
every  woman,  that  cannot  fail  to  help  her  realize  the  importance 
in  each  simple  act  of  personal  selection. 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE    ROUTE    OF    MATERIAL 

f'A  place  for  everything,  and  everything  in  its  place" 

Within  the  evolution  of  all  things,  some  of  the  sayings  of  our 
grandmothers  but  come  to  us  again  in  another  and  more  defi- 
nite form  for  new  use  and  understanding. 

We  find  the  word  "Routing"  merely  the  modern,  efficient 
expression  for  the  old  command:  "Make  your  head  save  your 
heels,"  and  for  the  better  carrying  out  of  such  familiar  counsel 
as :  "What  is  worth  doing  at  all  is  worth  doing  well." 

If  the  business  of  buying  for  the  home  is,  as  we  believe  it  to 
be,  of  immense  importance  and  significance  to  the  world  of 
commerce,  as  well  as  the  individual,  then  that  of  the  storing 
and  using  of  materials  becomes  closely  allied  in  consideration  to 
that  of  the  study  of  values  in  purchasing.  For  what,  why  and 
how  are  these  goods  to  be  used? 

The  only  way  to  properly  "route"  the  various  departments 
of  an  industry,  is  to  have  in  mind  the  entire  object  for  which 
such  separate  departments  exist.  Perhaps  the  main  and  con- 
tinuous purpose  of  a  home  is  the  furnishing  of  food.  We  must 
procure,  prepare  and  clear  away  food,  but  food  of  what  nature 
and  why?  Again,  we  should  keep  the  various  rooms,  particu- 
larly the  sleeping  rooms,  in  orderly,  attractive  and  sanitary 
condition,  but  what  motive  prompts  us  to  this? 

We  should  have  fresh,  clean  linen  on  demand,  and  always  be 
ready  to  respond  to  the  children,  to  receive  a  friend,  or  help  a 
neighbor,  but  how?  Within  what  method?  And  to  what  end? 
Let  us  become  psychologically  disposed  for  a  moment,  and  move 
from  hence  intelligently  toward  the  concrete  and  separate  facts. 

A  home  is,  as  we  know,  a  center  of  love.  The  object  of  such 
a  center  is  to  live  under  maximum  blessings.  To  live  fully  and 
truly,  one  must  have  health,  wealth  and  prosperity.  Therefore 
a  home  should  be  the  supply  house  for  the  means  to  insure  these 

73 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

conditions.  Physical,  mental,  moral  and  spiritual  health  is  the 
result  of  right  food,  feeling  and  action.  Wealth  includes  com- 
forts, talents,  peace  and  affection,  which  in  whole  are  procur- 
able only  through  the  means  of  some  money  and  personal 
development.  Prosperity,  on  the  other  hand,  presupposes  knowl- 
edge, productiveness,  religion,  and  happiness,  and  expresses 
itself  best  through  initiation  and  a  proper  sense  of  the  inter- 
relationships of  life.  A  home  somewhat  resembles  the  ideal 
school,  save  that  it  is  more  fundamental  and  recreational  and 
includes  more  subjects.  The  model  school  is  a  place  to  learn 
to  know,  to  learn  to  do,  to  learn  to  be,  and  the  greatest  of  these 
is  to  be.  The  right  and  the  left  hand  of  knowledge,  we  find 
to  be  attention  and  perception.  That  of  doing,  includes  imag- 
ination and  perseverance,  and  to  be  one's  best,  one  must  ever  as- 
pire and  determine.  Where  this  triune  purpose  is  intelligently 
carried  out,  the  individual  should  find  himself  well  equipped, 
or  schooled,  to  take  his  part  in  the  outside  world,  but  the  home 
is  not  merely  a  place  in  which  to  learn.  It  is  rather  a  center 
in  which  and  from  which  to  live.  We  must  therefore  plan  a 
little  larger  and  more  inclusive  course  than  the  school  through 
which  each  member  shall  pass  if  he  would  grow  to  the  full  limit 
xof  the  seed  that  is  in  him.  In  the  ideal  home  we  discover  rather 
a  double  triangle  of  needs.  A  meaning  of  not  only  what  it  is  to 
learn,  but^what  shall  it  be  to  live? 

There  are  six  motives  that  together  move  the  soul  of  man 
to  be,  and  it  is  essential  that  we  keep  the  Inner  Light  so  burn- 
ing that  all  six  may  ever  see  the  vision  of  the  coming  day, — 
namely : 

Health,  or  the  very  spirit  of  man,  which  is  maintained  by 
proper  food  and  effort. 

Wealth,  or  its  means  in  matter,  which  is  determined  by  one's 
power  of  imagination  and  utilization. 

Knowledge,  or  that  desire  for  truth  which  grows  with  dis- 
crimination and  experience. 

The  love  of  beauty,  which  is  the  very  soul  of  Creation,  born 
of  desire  and  the  Art  instinct. 

Sociability,  moving  toward  the  Brotherhood  of  Man,  guided 
by  relationship  and  sympathy. 

74 


THE    ROUTE    OF    MATERIAL 

And  last  of  all,  a  motive  of  Tightness  which  interprets  God 
in  a  practical  application  of  religion  and  a  working  sense  of 
justice. 

These  are  the  roots  that  must  be  started  to  grow  in  the  home. 
The  native  necessities  that  are  mothered  and  cultivated  from 
day  to  day.  Fed  by  the  family  life,  and  made  to  act  by  reason 
of  the  daily  requirements,  and  the  kind  of  surroundings. 

In  every  house  there  are  found  to  be  certain  essential  duties, 
br  occupations,  that  form  the  very  substance  of  the  structure 
Jupon  which  the  family  life  rests  and  moves,  and  while  these  vary 
in  degree  and  kind,  the  main  factors  and  principles  are  the  same 
in  all  home-making,  and  the  first  effort  in  routing  the  work 
should  be  to  determine  these  most  important  factors,  and  then 
the  details.  This  can  only  be  properly  understood  by  studying 
all  the  elements  collectively,  so  that  their  interdependency  and 
interrelationship  shall  be  clearly  perceived.  Every  requirement 
included  by  the  kind  of  business  to  be  housed,  the  sort  of  work, 
and  the  results  wanted.  One  should  have  a  clear  and  definite  un- 
derstanding of  just  what  each  department  includes,  and  not 
only  be  able  to  perform  the  work  properly,  but  have  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  fundamental  principles  of  each  part,  as  well  as  the 
whole.  The  efficiency  of  a  home  is  in  proportion  to  the  degree 
in  which  its  equipment,  materials,  and  operations  are  intelligently 
managed  and  controlled  to  produce  the  results  desired.  In 
other  words,  by  the  way  in  which  its  material  is  utilized,  the 
problem  being  the  interrelation  of  it  all. 

One  must  consider  the  effect  of  each  act  upon  those  that 
follow,  for  all  conditions  that  exist  are  the  result  of  former  acts. 
To  plan  ahead  is  to  see  clearly  causes  and  effects  as  they  will  be 
made  to  move  in  regular  sequence,  beginning  with  the  initial 
effort. 

All  work  should  be  so  planned  that  there  are  no  steps  to  be 
retraced.  Everything  should  be  arranged  to  make  it  easy  to 
pass  from  one  occupation  to  another  with  the  least  possible 
waste  in  time,  or  motion,  and  where  it  is  practical,  work  should 
proceed  from  left  to  right. 

Housework,  in  order  that  it  fulfill  its  varied  mission,  is  made 
up  of  a  great  variety  of  subjects,  and  yet  they  may  be  reduced 

75 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

to  three  main  departments.  That  of  food,  laundry,  and  cleaning. 
There  is  besides  these,  the  one  of  sewing — although  this  is  not 
usually  classed  as  housework — and  that  of  nursing,  or  the 
care  of  the  children,  which  again  while  it  is  a  part  of  the  home 
and  involves  much  of  the  home-work,  is  not  strictly  speaking  to 
be  classified  as  housework  proper,  and  therefore  will  be  con- 
sidered in  a  later  chapter. 

The  material, — its  use  and  its  location, — that  enters  into  the 
proper  carrying  out  of  these  three  principal  branches  in  the 
making  of  a  home,  is  the  immediate  subject  for  our  considera- 
tion. After  it  has  been  purchased  and  brought  to  the  door, 
what  should  be  its  route? 

At  the  Experiment  Station  one  of  our  efforts  was  to  make  it 
unnecessary  for  the  delivery  man,  or  boy,  to  come  into  the 
house.  A  sort  of  receiving  station  was  improvised,  consisting 
of  a  well-designed  receptacle,  a  shelf  or  broad  ledge,  and  a 
small  drop  table  just  over  the  pump,  particularly  instituted  to 
receive  the  washed  and  ready  vegetables  from  the  garden.  Just 
inside  the  porch  door,  on  a  small  shelf,  was  placed  a  standard 
pair  of  scales  weighing  from  a  fraction  of  an  ounce  to  twenty- 
five  pounds.  Under  this  a  standard  set  of  dry  and  of  wet  meas- 
ures is  to  be  found,  and  a  file  for  all  bills,  receipts  and  notices. 
Everything  can  therefore  be  checked  up,  measured  and  weighed 
before  routing  it  to  its  prepared  place  of  storage,  which  is, 
by  the  way,  as  nearly  in  the  place  where  it  is  to  be  first  used  as 
is  possible  to  arrange  it.  String  and  paper  when  kept,  is  de- 
posited right  at  hand,  a  scrap  basket  receiving  what  is  dis- 
carded. Of  course  the  storing  is  controlled  more  or  less  by 
the  main  equipment  of  the  house,  the  location  of  cupboards, 
ice-box,  working  table,  etc.,  but  proper  routing  should  place 
these  in  the  readiest  location.  The  arrangement  of  the  equip- 
ment of  each  department,  not  only  requires  the  most  compe- 
tent knowledge  that  can  be  found,  but  this  knowledge  should 
include  that  of  being  skilled  in  just  how  to  do  the  actual  work, 
according  to  the  most  efficient  system.  In  preparing  and  clear- 
ing away  meals,  there  are  probably  more  trips  made  to  the  ice- 
box than  any  other  spot,  unless  it  be  the  sink,  or  water  supply. 
Therefore  in  our  case  the  ice-box  was  placed  where  it  mini- 

76 


THE    ROUTE    OF    MATERIAL 

mized  these  steps,  requiring  only  one  from  the  dining-room  and 
three  from  the  kitchen.  The  working  table  came  next,  with 
storage  places  for  dry  and  staple  goods  both  over  and  under 
it,  somewhat  in  the  form  of  a  cabinet,  but  not  as  confining. 
Places  for  all  sorts  of  things,  such  as  tools  and  conveniences, 
were  assembled  about  this  particular  table.  Next  to  the  table 
came  the  stove,  which  being  practically  heatless,  was  no  ob- 
jection in  its  nearness.  Just  around  to  the  right  was  placed 
the  receiving  table  for  food  ready  to  serve,  en  route  to  the  din- 
ing-room. Thus  making  a  perfect  succession  of  the  parts  of  the 
act  of  preparing  the  food  for  the  table,  with  the  least  confusion 
and  waste  of  effort. 

Again,  with  the  return  of  the  dishes,  after  being  placed  to- 
gether, they  are  taken  back  in  one  trip,  the  food  stopping  at 
the  ice-box,  or  safe,  and  the  dishes  moving  on  to  the  machine, 
or  place  of  washing,  which  is  directly  under  where  they  are 
stored,  thus  making  a  simple  circuit  of  this  whole  procedure,  that 
must  be  so  great  a  part  of  the  day's  routine.  No  travel  in  a 
backward  direction  is  allowed  in  a  properly  routed  task.  To 
progress  uniformly  is  the  continuous  object.  The  same  prin- 
ciple we  find  applies  in  the  cleaning  of  a  room.  All  the  mate- 
rials needed  in  the  process  should  be  kept  or  stored  as  near  the 
point  of  use  as  can  be  arranged.  But  for  the  more  rapid  dis- 
patching of  this  work,  let  us  take  an  entire  floor  as  an  example, 
rather  than  one  room,  the  idea  being  that  it  is  much  easier  to 
move  along  in  one  kind  of  task  to  the  finish,  provided  it  be  not 
too  long  and  fatiguing,  than  to  jump  from  one  thing  to  an- 
other too  rapidly. 

The  old  way  to  clean  a  room  was  to  first  dry  dust  everything, 
beat,  brush  and  move  out  the  furniture,  attack  the  floor  vigor- 
ously with  the  broom,  after  closing  all  doors  that  the  cleaning 
of  one  room  might  not  contaminate  another.  Bring  the  tools 
from  all  over  the  house,  prepare  one's  self  for  an  attack  of 
dirt  and  all  the  rest  of  it.  The  present  routing  of  the  work 
in  the  cleaning  of  a  main  floor  of  a  modern  home  is  carried  on 
under  more  humane  and  civilizing  methods.  One  need  hardly 
think  of  protecting  one's  self  from  the  dust,  any  more  than  in 
walking  in  the  street,  or  moving  about  at  pleasure.  Glove  your 

77 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

hands,  if  you  will,  and  use  a  dustless  duster,  or  any  means  that 
will  not  scatter  dirt.  Pass  from  one  section  to  another,  mak- 
ing each  surface  in  turn  as  spotless  and  orderly  as  may  be. 

Progress  from  left  to  right,  until  each  piece  of  furniture  has 

)een  carefully  gone  over.  Do  likewise  with  the  windows,  walls 
and  woodwork,  sucking  the  dirt  into  an  efficient  cleaner,  until 

:he  circuit  has  been  made,  when  the  floors  are  ready,  nothing 

laving  been  disturbed  from  its  place,  or  covered  for  protection. 
A  good  suction  sweeper  may  be  made  to  pass  from  one  rug,  or 
carpet,  to  another  in  rapid  succession,  the  finishing  touch  being 
a  dustless  mop  where  any  hardwood  floor  needs  attention,  and 

>erchance  a  few  flowers  to  grace  the  result. 

This  method  followed  in  the  efficiency  spirit  by  actual  test 
not  only  reduces  the  time  and  labor  50  per  cent,  over  the  old 
way,  but  leaves  the  worker  comparatively  unfatigued  and  in 

)ersonal  ease  and  fitness. 

And  so  in  the  routing  of  the  laundry  work,  which  we  shall  take 
up  in  another  chapter. 

Enough  has  been  said  here  to  suggest  not  only  the  practical 
value  in  a  well-thought-out  routing  system,  but  its  intimate 
connection  with  the  purpose  for  which  the  home  exists.  There 
can  be  little  health,  wealth,  or  prosperity,  unless  the  very  center 
of  love  in  which  one  lives,  moves  on  in  a  thoughtful  way  to 
supply  the  physical  needs  of  the  family  within  which  rests  the 
substance  for  the  mental,  moral  and  spiritual  quickening  of  the 
individual. 

The  routing  that  realizes  the  most  perfect  daily  results  is 
more  than  the  kind  of  material  used,  and  more  than  the  sepa- 
rate tasks.  It  is  practically  the  effect  of  one's  closest  environ- 
ment, as  it  were,  in  its  activity.  The  interrelation  of  the  domes- 
tic activities  with  the  domestic  life,  for  life  in  the  average  home 
is  of  necessity  moving  rapidly  all  the  time.  So  much  so  that 
the  scheduling  of  each  task  becomes  the  scientific  means  of  car- 
rying out  the  right  form  of  routing.  To  plan  ahead,  so  that 
the  proper  provision  is  made  for  the  completion  of  each  task 
in  a  given  amount  of  time,  is  the  object  of  a  schedule.  This  is 
considered  by  many  authorities  to  be  perhaps  the  greatest  eco- 
nomic factor  in  production.  The  cost  of  operating  can  only 

78 


THE    ROUTE    OF    MATERIAL 

be  at  its  lowest  where  the  work  has  been  planned  with  the  equip- 
ment to  fit  the  demands  of  the  most  efficient  schedule. 

The  average  woman  thinks  she  knows  about  how  long  it  will 
take  her  to  perform  a  given  task,  but  a  few  minutes  more  or 
less  makes  very  little  difference.  A  man  scheduling  the  work 
of  a  factory,  or  shop,  on  the  other  hand,  makes  a  most  careful 
study  of  these  few  minutes.  Can  they  be  reduced,  is  his  ques- 
tion, and  he  answers  it  by  working  at  them  assiduously  with 
every  means  known  to  his  profession,  just  because  it  is  the 
economic  point  that  may  be  changed,  thereby  resulting  in  profit, 
but  a  home  schedule  should  be  a  fairly  flexible  one.  It  should 
follow  a  clearly  defined  routing  diagram,  but  it  should  give 
way  whenever  the  profit  of  the  home  counts  for  more  than 
arriving  at  each  station  on  time. 

We  should,  however,  form  very  clear  and  graphic  pictures, 
or  diagrams,  of  just  what  is  to  be  done,  why,  and  how,  and 
keep  score-cards  of  results,  with  a  modern  filing-system  for 
reference.  In  this  way  only  can  we  properly  schedule  and  dis- 
patch a  given  task.  Results  are  much  more  readily  realized 
when  we  have  formed  the  habit  of  quickly  and  definitely  group- 
ing facts  and  parts  together,  forming  the  image  that  we  would 
like  to  have  realized.  Such  images  are  then  but  waiting  to  be 
summoned  into  existence. 

"With  a  place  for  everything  and  everything  in  its  place." 
With  a  real  understanding  of  the  most  intelligent  system  of 
"routing,"  which  is  the  basis  of  the  desire  to  "Make  your  head 
save  your  heels,"  and  with  a  well-planned  schedule  to  guide 
each  step  by  the  way,  surely,  as  our  grandmothers  said — 
"What  is  worth  doing  at  all  is  worth  doing  well." 


79 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE    INSTRUCTION    BUREAU 

"A  slender  beginning,  gradually  forming  a 

select  Instruction  outline 

— The  foundation  of  right  work" 

As  one  pictures  the  amount  and  kind  of  instruction  collected 
by  the  housekeeper  for  the  operation  of  the  average  home,  one 
sees  perhaps  a  receipt  book,  or  two.  Some  ancient  family  rec- 
ords of  the  works  of  mother,  or  grandmother.  A  few  scraps 
of  papers  gathered  together,  the  copied  rules  of  some  especially 
good  muffins,  cake,  croquettes,  or  salad,  enjoyed  in  the  house 
of  a  friend,  or  neighbor,  who  had  perchance  been  particularly 
successful  each  in  her  way.  A  drawer  of  old  patterns  that 
cannot  possibly  be  used  again,  because  of  the  change  of  fashion, 
or  of  outgrowing  that  sort  of  thing.  One  or  more  designs  for 
an  embroidered  doily,  or  lamp  shade,  some  tonic,  or  lotion  for- 
mulas, a  few  indiscriminate  clippings  and  ladies'  Home  Jour- 
nals. Some  directions  for  special  emergencies,  and  a  plan  or 
two  tucked  away  somewhere  for  the  remodeling  of  the  kitchen, 
or  the  addition  of  another  bath  room — found,  however,  to  be 
too  expensive  at  the  time  when  the  carpenter  reported  upon  it, 
and  so  awaiting  the  coming  of  the  "Ship." 

And  this  is  neither  overdrawn,  nor  surprising,  for  almost  all 
housekeeping  Instructions,  up  to  a  very  few  years  ago,  have 
come  down  to  us  by  word  of  mouth  through  the  traditions  of 
each  family.  One  showing  another,  by  reason  of  the  act  being 
done  in  the  presence  of  all;  the  standard  being — "the  way  we 
like  it" — and  a  right  good  standard  that,  in  some  cases,  but 
how  easy  it  is  to  learn  to  dislike  what  one  has  discovered  to  be 
less  than  the  best,  and  to  like  with  an  added  virtue,  the  thing 
proved  to  be  the  finest  known. 

Until  very  lately  no  factory,  shop,  or  any  unprofessional  en- 
terprise was  expected  to  carry  its  own  Instruction  Bureau. 

80 


THE    INSTRUCTION    BUREAU 

A  library  in  the  lawyer's  office,  or  minister's  study,  became  an 
accustomed  necessity  for  the  ready  reference  of  the  client,  or 
student,  but  when  it  came  to  the  various  industries,  each  work- 
man was  supposed  to  learn  by  experience  and  the  watching  of 
another  more  skilled  than  himself.  Excellent  methods  as  far 
as  they  go,  but  how  much  better  it  is  to  have  all  the  available 
information  of  the  country  sifted,  classified,  condensed  and 
ready  at  hand,  from  which  to  draw  at  a  moment's  notice;  to- 
gether  with  experience  and  the  right  sort  of  teaching.  The 
first  essential  being  of  course  the  standardizing,  or  estimate  of 
one's  subject,  when  it  becomes  a  very  simple  matter  to  grad- 
ually collect  information  adapted  to  one's  degree  of  skill  in  its 
use.  In  fact  when  one  has  a  definite  standard  of  work  in  mind, 
all  sorts  of  information  seem  to  gravitate  toward  one;  often 
from  the  most  unexpected  sources. 

The  writer  has  for  a  long  time  found  it  useful  to  have  a 
small  pad  and  pencil  attached  to  the  head  of  the  bed,  upon 
which  to  note  any  questions,  ideas,  or  facts  that  might  occur 
to  her  after  the  day  is  over,  and  just  before  sleep;  a  most 
fertile  time  for  suggestion,  making  ready  for  the  next  day's 
Planning  and  Dispatching.  Lately  she  has  extended  the  idea 
all  through  the  house.  An  attractive  little  pad  and  pencil 
attached,  is  hung  in  an  obscure  spot  in  every  room,  including 
one  at  the  front  door  and  the  telephone,  as  well  as  one  about 
her  own  neck.  These  are  ever  ready  for  any  variety  of  instruc- 
tion verbally,  or  casually  occurring.  Books  to  buy,  music  worth 
hearing,  authorities  to  investigate,  notes  for  reference,  and  facts 
and  suggestions  upon  every  conceivable  side  of  the  home  and 
its  parts.  From  time  to  time  the  slips  are  classified,  discarded, 
indexed,  etc.,  the  results  entering  more  or  less  permanently  into 
the  general  Bureau,  which  in  this  case  is  merely  a  flat-top  desk 
with  spacious  drawers,  standing  in  the  office  of  the  house.  Here 
all  kinds  of  information  are  to  be  found,  or  referred  to  in  its 
more  convenient  place.  Records,  papers,  receipts,  bills,  dates, 
patterns,  designs,  plans,  notes  of  purchases.  The  what,  why, 
how  and  when  of  things.  The  sizes  and  prices  of  garments  for 
each  member  of  the  family,  and  the  variety  of  instruction 
needed  in  the  professionalizing  and  Scientific  Management  of 

81 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

the  entire  home.  The  records,  slips  and  bills  of  articles  as  they 
enter  the  house,  at  the  receiving  station,  are  from  time  to  time 
collected  and  classified.  Notes  of  experiments  carried  on,  or 
tests  made  in  method  and  machinery,  are  here  listed.  The 
Central  card  index  of  all  the  branch  indexes  of  the  house,  the 
account  of  stores  and  material  on  hand,  and  the  condition  of 
the  various  departments,  are  made  known,  and  immediate,  re- 
liable and  accurate  records  are  ever  in  readiness.  A  veritable 
reservoir  of  perpetual  education  in  all  home-making  subjects, 
condensed  into  the  smallest  of  space,  but  flexible  in  its  branches. 
The  real  material  for  Instruction  being  found  in  most  cases  in 
the  department  in  which  it  is  oftenest  needed  in  actual  use.  Quite 
a  little  library  has  already  been  assembled  in  the  Kitchen  and 
Laundry,  and  also  in  the  Medicine  Closet;  dainty  little  shelves 
having  been  arranged  appropriately  for  each. 

While  so  far  it  is  but  a  beginning  of  the  Efficient  way,  it 
has  already  proved  itself  a  time,  money,  and  strength  saver 
when  once  in  operation.  It  gives  a  certain  air  of  security;  a 
feeling  of  satisfaction  in  being  up  to  time  and  knowing  just 
where  one  stands,  an  alert  and  thoughtful  attitude  toward  one's 
responsibilities,  and  becomes  a  most  effective  and  convenient 
way  of  keeping  one's  self  up  to  date  in  household  matters,  a 
ready  reference  of  the  best  known  ways — for  there  is  but  one  best 
way  in  the  doing  of  everything — a  little  center,  starting  from 
but  a  lead-pencil  and  an  idea  and  branching  in  close  and  fine 
relation  to  every  department  of  the  house,  and  from  thence 
reaching  out  and  gathering  in  for  one's  use,  the  results  of  the 
Universe,  a  source  of  instruction  to  which  one  adds  and  from 
which  one  takes,  as  occasion  suggests,  until  the  housekeeper 
feels  as  the  literary  man  in  his  library, — 

"Where  all  round  the  room, 
The  silent  servants  wait ; 
His  friends  in  every  season  bright  and  dim." 

For  if  education  is  the  development  of  the  entire  man,  then 
surely  it  should  not  stop  at  any  period,  or  subject,  but  be  car- 
ried through  the  occupation  of  one's  entire  life.  With  but  the 

82 


THE    INSTRUCTION    BUREAU 

right  vision,  one's  capacity  for  instruction  will  grow  with  the 
years.  Instead,  however,  of  going  to  school,  one  may  in  this 
way  create  one's  own  school  at  home,  for  as  Carlyle  says :  "The 
true  University  these  days  is  a  collection  of  books." 


83 


CHAPTER  IX 

HOUSEHOLD    EQUIPMENT,    UTENSILS,    AND    DEVICES 

"There  are  tools  to  work  withal,  for  those  who  will" 

While  the  tools  with  which  and  through  which  work  is  accom- 
plished, should  be  estimated  and  recognized  as  essential  to  the 
right  kind  of  results,  they  are  in  truth  of  secondary  importance 
compared  with  the  motives,  the  ideals,  or  ideas,  the  knowledge, 
skill  and  productive  ability  of  the  workman  himself,  which  is 
the  first  and  should  be  always  the  controlling  factor. 

To  say  that  all  homes,  under  all  conditions,  should  be  im- 
mediately equipped  with  the  most  modern  up-to-date  ma- 
chinery— because  machinery  is  a  wise  substitute  for  hand 
labor — would  be  to  declare  social  and  economic  havoc.  Why? 
Because  just  as  the  machinery  and  equipment  of  our  own 
bodies,  hands,  feet,  arms,  head,  etc.,  have  developed  through  a 
strong  human  desire  and  ability  for  advancement,  preserva- 
tion, and  larger  powers  of  expression,  and  come  into  being 
through  slow  and  persistent  effort  in  these  directions,  deter- 
mined and  acquired  only  by  our  need  of  a  higher  conception  of 
life,  not  merely  wished  into  place  haphazard  like,  so  the  instru- 
ments and  organs,  or  the  equipment  through  which  a  more 
perfect  expression  of  the  home  may  be  realized,  should  be 
carefully  studied  and  desired  from  the  standpoint  of  their  value 
in  making  possible  a  higher  and  more  sympathetically  developed 
social  unit,  proving  itself  in  a  more  efficient  institution  for  the 
production  and  maintenance  of  better  citizens. 

Any  and  all  machinery  that  can  be  made  to  best  further 
this  end,  is  not  only  worth  desiring,  but  it  becomes  the  duty  of 
the  individual  and  society  to  see  to  it  that  such  desire  be  en- 
couraged to  the  point  of  properly  incorporating  every  device 
known  to  us,  that  can  be  made  to  advance  the  standard  of  the 
household.  Merely  getting  the  work  done,  or  modernizing 
the  external  of  one's  surroundings,  is  not  sufficient  reason  for 

84 


HOUSEHOLD    EQUIPMENT,    UTENSILS,    DEVICES 

the  owning  of  machinery.  It  should  preserve  and  improve  the 
quality  of  the  work,  be  an  inspiration  for  greater  achievement, 
and  add  materially  to  the  well-being  of  the  family.  This  it 
can  only  accomplish  through  proper  kind  of  ownership. 

Efficiency,  Health  or  Well-being,  and  Beauty  are  the  three 
elements  that  prove  the  proper  quality  of  an  industry,  and, 
while  home-making  is  without  doubt  the  most  universal  industry 
of  the  world,  what  percentage  of  homes  are  at  their  maximum 
quality?  We  fear  but  a  small  number,  and  we  may  look  for 
the  reason  not  so  much  in  the  lack  of  equipment,  as  in  the 
average  home-maker's  estimate  of  her  own  industry.  She  con- 
ceives it  not  from  a  creative,  organized,  and  poetic  standpoint, 
but  rather  from  that  of  following  an  instinct  and  a  world- 
custom,  with  its  routine  of  mechanical  activities,  returning 
some  pleasure  of  course,  but  largely  resting  on  the  necessity  of 
drudgery,  and  dependent  upon  the  most  prosy  externalities, 
with  hardly  a  thought  of  their  inner  meaning.  With  such  an 
attitude  one  will  accomplish  little,  even  with  the  finest  of  tools, 
that  would  justify  the  owning  of  the  implements.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  home-makers  can  be  made  to  realize  that  the  most 
common-place  duties  in  life  are  capable  of  being  made  fine, 
developed  into  operations  of  intense  interest,  and  used  to  blaze 
the  way  toward  a  higher  form  of  personality,  such  an  one  should 
be  encouraged  to  use  every  tool  available  in  the  carrying  out 
of  her  profession,  and  the  building  of  a  home  that  would  stand 
for  something  definite  in  the  community. 

At  the  Housekeeping  Experiment  Station  we  were  constantly 
asked:  "Would  you  advise  me  to  buy  this?"  and  "Would  you 
advise  me  to  buy  that?"  To  which  we  would  have  to  reply: 
"If  your  conditions  are  right,  Yes ;  if  not,  wait  until  they  are." 
"Study  yourself  and  your  surroundings  closely  before  adding 
to  your  burden,"  because  everything  one  owns  is  more  or  less 
of  a  burden  and  responsibility.  This  would  often  deter  the  one 
who  was  inclined  to  want  everything  she  saw,  and  was  not, 
according  to  commercial  view — good  business — but  our  work 
is  not,  and  has  not  been,  the  selling  of  goods ;  rather  the  sugges- 
tion of  a  higher  standard  of  housework,  and  in  this  the  right 
conditions  play  a  much  larger  part  than  the  right  tools,  in  fact 

85 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

such  conditions  demand  efficient  tools.    It  no  longer  is  a  ques- 
tion in  the  mind.    You  must  have  them. 

Now  what  are  the  most  efficient  tools  for  housework? 
Surely  those  that  are  constructed  on  the  very  best  mechanical 
principle.  They  should  be  strong,  durable,  simple,  well-made, 
and  beautiful.  Be  able  to  do  the  work  as  defined  by  the  best 
known  standard.  Reflect  a  beneficial  effect  upon  the  operator, 
and  be  produced  by  a  manufacturer  who  stands  back  of  his 
goods  with  an  honest,  reliable,  scientific  and  progressive  atti- 
tude. In  these  days  of  sharp  competition  and  wanting  every- 
thing for  nothing,  this  may  seem  over-much  to  expect  of  the 
business  world,  but  in  reality  there  are  many  such  manufac- 
turers, only  too  ready  to  do  their  utmost  to  produce  the  best 
possible  tool  under  the  best  possible  conditions.  Up  to  three 
years  ago,  however,  there  were  very  few  what  might  be  called 
high-priced  men  giving  their  business  attention  and  inventive 
ability  to  housework  machinery,  but  this  branch  of  industry  is 
now  growing  rapidly  and  bids  fair  to  catch  up  with  other  and 
more  fertile  fields  of  production,  provided  there  be  the  intelli- 
gent demand  on  the  part  of  the  housewife.  In  a  large  and 
social  way  that  would  not  apply  to  all  individuals,  but  to  the 
general  whole ;  the  servant  in  the  house  is  the  obstacle  in  the 
way  of  a  proper  and  educated  demand  for  machinery.  As  a 
rule,  the  finest  and  most  expensive  equipment  is  not  safe  in  the 
hands  of  the  average  servant.  First,  because  it  needs  a  sensi- 
tive and  thoughtful  operator  to  get  the  best  results.  Second, 
because  by  virtue  of  her  being  a  servant,  she  has  probably  little 
initiative,  and  therefore  prefers  the  old  way,  for  it  requires 
considerable  mental  effort  to  change  one's  habits  and  methods. 
And  thirdly,  there  is  little  encouragement  to  buy  good  tools, 
unless  they  bring  a  return  in  satisfaction  and  are  made  to  pay 
for  themselves.  Where  there  are  servants,  the  return  is  too 
often  a  loss,  through  accident,  neglect,  or  waste.  To  get  the 
most  out  of  a  machine,  one  must  have  the  most  in  one's  self, 
and  while  the  average  servant  is  not  the  best  type  of  mechanical 
operator,  what  we  call  the  "Servant  Problem,"  or  the  scarcity 
of  this  class,  is  one  of  the  most  encouraging  features  to  the 
manufacturers  who  have  before  them  as  a  vision  of  household 

86 


HOUSEHOLD    EQUIPMENT,    UTENSILS,    DEVICES 

need,  nothing  short  of  the  automatic,  mechanical  servant  that 
will,  as  far  as  possible,  replace  the  human  domestic.  You  will 
question:  Is  this  progress?  We  believe  it  is,  for  the  reason 
that  it  is  meeting  a  necessity,  and  because,  while  we  may  sac- 
rifice many  of  the  little  personal  delights  in  having  the  right 
sort  of  maid  at  our  beck  and  call,  the  social  independence  which 
would  result  to  both  sides,  would  more  than  balance  this  mere 
sense  of  comfort,  and  the  fact  is,  there  are  too  few  of  the  "right 
sort"  to  supply  the  demand.  Again  the  tendency  to  specializa- 
tion, makes  the  task  of  management  a  psychological,  as  well  as 
an  economic  problem. 

As  an  example,  and  at  the  risk  of  emphasizing  the  personal, 
let  me  tell  the  reader  how  equipment,  utensils,  and  devices  came 
into  prominence  in  the  writer's  case. 

The  time  came  when  I  had  to  choose  between  practically  all 
my  allowance  being  absorbed  in  wages  and  the  running  of  a 
house  that  at  least  required  three  servants  for  its  simplest  up- 
keep :  a  laundress  and  cook,  a  waitress  and  chambermaid,  and 
a  nurse  and  seamstress,  to  meet  the  demands  of  a  family  of  five. 
This  in  turn  absorbed  if  not  all  of  my  time,  the  greater  part 
of  it,  and  most  of  my  energy,  leaving  but  slender  resources  with 
which  to  build  up  any  individual,  or  family  life  that  was  worth 
while.  The  alternative  being  to  make  over  the  house,  family 
and  methods  so  that  strength,  money,  and  time  would  be  con- 
served, and  by  so  doing  meet  and  solve,  if  possible,  the  so-called 
"Servant  Problem,"  from  an  individual,  as  well  as  a  social 
standpoint.  I  chose  the  latter,  but  was  very  still  about  it ;  not 
even  the  family  were  conscious  of  what  was  happening.  My 
excuse  for  having  no  "help"  being  that  I  could  not  get  the 
right  kind, — a  truth — and  that  I  wanted  to  catch  up  with  back 
debts, — another  truth.  But  all  the  time  I  was  studying  like  a 
student  preparing  for  an  examination.  Day  and  night  I  was 
carrying  the  problem  around  in  my  head,  wondering  how  best 
to  simplify  and  organize  the  home  so  that  the  least  would  be 
sacrificed  and  we  could  continue  indefinitely  sans  domestique. 
I  analyzed  the  various  departments  of  the  work,  and  the  neces- 
sary duties  of  each,  such  as  the  laundry,  the  cooking,  the 
cleaning,  and  serving,  and  experimented  with  methods  for  each. 

87 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

I  searched  for  the  best  devices  with  which  to  accomplish  the 
desired  results,  and  abandoned  many  that  I  found  were  in  my 
possession,  such  as  heavy  iron  pots,  hard-to-clean  pans,  and  in 
short  every  unnecessary  article.  Within  six  weeks  I  made  my 
first  real  purchase  for  the  new  system, — a  general  utility  family 
motor,  which  we  soon  nicknamed  "James,  the  Great."  He 
ground  the  coffee,  cleaned  the  silver,  made  the  bread  and  cake, 
washed,  wrung  and  mangled  the  clothes,  grated  the  cheese, 
chocolate  and  cocoanut,  sharpened  the  knives,  beat  the  eggs, 
made  the  ice-cream,  and  in  fact  did,  or  could  do  anything  and 
everything  requiring  strength  and  time  in  the  turning,  and  had 
the  advantage  over  the  other  motors  on  the  market,  in  that 
any  size  utility  could  be  used,  and  special  ones  did  not  have 
to  be  purchased.  Any  mechanic,  by  the  mere  introduction  of  a 
pin  through  the  rod,  could  make  the  proper  connection,  and 
"James"  was  easily  moved  about  the  Kitchen  from  place  to 
place,  carrying  out  a  general  housework  program  at  almost 
no  waste  of  strength  and  at  a  minimum  cost  of  a  cent  and  a 
half  an  hour  for  labor.  He  was  at  the  same  time,  supposed  to 
run  the  vacuum  cleaner,  but  this  was  never  a  success;  the  dis- 
tance was  too  great  from  the  Kitchen  and  the  cleaner  was  of  a 
noisy  and  inefficient  type.  This  then  became  my  second  object 
of  research,  and  the  instrument  around  which  I  might  say,  I 
began  my  "mechanical"  training.  There  were  a  bewildering 
number  of  them  on  the  market;  a  veritable  mushroom  growth 
that  has  hardly  yet  ceased  to  produce  its  kind,  constructed 
upon  every  known  principle,  good  and  bad,  and  backed  by  all 
kinds  and  types  of  people.  Everything  was  on  exhibition, 
from  the  tiny  hand  toy  of  a  few  dollars,  to  the  elaborately  in- 
stalled and  stationary  plant.  Clearly  the  only  way  to  know 
which  was  which,  was  to  find  out  for  myself  through  internal 
investigation.  This  I  proceeded  to  do ;  first,  by  eliminating  the 
high-power  stationary  machine,  for  this  reason — except  in 
unusual  cases,  the  portable  machine  will  do  just  as  good  work, 
with  less  danger  of  getting  out  of  order,  and  at  much  less  cost 
of  money  and  muscle,  for  without  frequent  outlets,  which  make 
for  expense,  a  long  hose  is  a  tiresome  tool  to  handle  for  any 
length  of  time.  Of  the  portable  types,  the  electric  is  to  be 

88 


HOUSEHOLD    EQUIPMENT,    UTENSILS,    DEVICES 

preferred,  although  there  are  one  or  two  hand  machines  that 
might  be  mentioned  as  worth  while.  After  serious  considera- 
tion, all  machines  of  the  hose  and  nozzle  type  were  eliminated 
in  favor  of  the  brush  plan,  and  while  my  first  purchase  was 
"The  Peerless," — one  of  the  Duntley  type — I  afterward  ex- 
changed it  for  a  "Hoover,"  which  is  an  easy  running,  easily 
handled,  beautifully  constructed  device  having  a  fairly  high 
speed  motor  with  all  the  power  that  is  safe  to  use  upon  any 
good  rugs ;  comparatively  noiseless,  with  a  large  compartment 
for  the  dirt,  and  a  soft  generous  brush  motion  that  practically 
keeps  the  floors  speckless  at  minimum  cost,  time  and  strength. 
The  secret  of  keeping  a  house  clean,  I  found  to  be,  in  seeing  to 
it  that  the  floors  are  dustless.  The  dust  that  settles  on  the 
furniture  is  not  to  be  compared  with  the  dust  that  is  ever  ready 
on  the  floor  to  be  stirred  up  and  distributed  by  every  passerby. 
Oftentimes  the  floor  that  looks  clean  is  the  real  cause  of  much 
unnecessary  housework  and  disease;  and  at  the  same  time  the 
hidden  dirt  and  grit  is  mischievously  disintegrating  the  very 
warp  and  woof  of  the  floor  covering. 

The  third  purchase,  and  to  me  the  most  significant  and 
fundamental  device  in  the  new  system  of  housekeeping,  was  the 
Fireless  Cooker.  While  this  did  not  begin  to  be  the  confusing 
study  that  the  Vacuum  Cleaner  proved  itself,  it  was  surprising 
to  see  how  many  varieties  of  ways  there  were  in  which  manu- 
facturers had  worked  out  the  practical  and  simple  principle  of 
cooking  by  the  conservation  of  heat  and  steam.  Boxes  and 
pails  made  of  every  sort  of  metal  and  wood,  interlined  with 
materials  good  and  bad,  from  sawdust  and  newspaper  to  mineral 
wool  and  asbestos,  costing  all  sorts  of  prices  and  varying  widely 
in  efficiency.  Practically  all  fireless  cookers  will  cook.  They 
differ,  however,  in  the  time  and  quality  of  the  cooking,  in  odor 
and  dampness,  and  in  durability.  Soapstone  plates  are  to  be 
preferred,  except  for  the  fact  that  they  will,  upon  rare  oc- 
casions, explode,  which  makes  me  prefer  the  metal,  to  which 
there  is  little  objection  if  they  be  kept  well  painted  with  alumi- 
num. As  metal  is  a  conductor  of  heat,  fireless  cookers  should 
be  built  with  an  outer  surface  of  wood.  The  interlining  should 
be  of  the  finest  mixture  of  heat-conserving  materials,  and  the 

89 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

inner  lining  of  the  very  best  of  heavy  pure  aluminum.  It  should 
have  the  closest  connections  compatible  with  safety,  such  as  is 
found  in  the  water  seal  cover  of  the  "Ideal,"  with  the  escape 
valve.  It  should  be  as  simple  as  possible  in  its  parts,  and  al- 
ways be  used  in  conjunction  with  a  thermometer.  The  fireless 
cooker  has  done,  and  will  do,  more  toward  revolutionizing  our 
method  of  home-cooking,  and  therefore  our  method  of  house- 
work, than  any  invention  since  the  time  of  the  coal  stove.  In 
fact,  we  know  nothing  to  be  compared  to  it,  for  the  principle 
of  the  conservation  of  heat  and  steam — as  old  as  the  world,  but 
new  in  its  adaptation, — has  within  it  the  suggestion  of  no 
kitchen  at  all,  no  unpleasant  odors  and  smoke,  no  unsightly 
pots  and  pans,  no  haste  and  confusion,  no  burning  and  scorch- 
ing, and  furthermore,  of  proving  to  the  world  that  civilized 
man  can  live  without  cooks. 

The  primitive  tripod  in  equipment,  upon  which  housework 
has  rested  for  so  long,  has  been  the  broom,  the  coal  stove  and 
the  wash  board,  but  little  imagination  is  required  to  picture  an 
era  of  marvelous  difference,  when  instead  of  scattering  the  dust 
by  an  unhealthy  bodily  motion  through  the  house  and  into  the 
lungs  of  the  inmates,  making  it  necessary  to  add  to  the  work 
of  the  laundry,  to  more  frequently  wash  the  windows,  to  move 
heavy  furniture,  and  to  do  it  all  over  again  the  next  day,  the 
dust  is  merely  sucked  away  by  a  safe  and  sane  process,  easy 
and  graceful  in  motion,  and  suitable  to  be  done  at  any  time. 
As  per  example :  I  cleaned  the  seven  rugs  of  the  front  hall,  not 
long  ago,  while  gloved  and  dressed  for  a  reception. 

A  washing  of  ample  proportion  can  be  done  with  the  turn 
of  a  button,  practically  not  wetting  one's  hands,  or  spattering 
a  drop  of  water:  the  effort  of  hanging  up  the  clothes  being 
perhaps  the  greatest  one,  but  what  sensible  and  appreciative 
woman  should  object  to  the  healthy  and  exhilarating  exercise 
of  properly  reaching  up  to  place  in  the  fresh,  delightful  air 
of  Heaven,  the  newly  washed  and  sweet  smelling  clothes  of  her 
own  household, — a  charming  study  in  motion  when  properly 
performed. 

Coming  back  to  the  fireless  cooker  in  the  picture,  we  see 
placed  in  front  of  it  a  Turkish  rug  of  exquisite  tone,  spotless 

90 


HOUSEHOLD    EQUIPMENT,    UTENSILS,    DEVICES 

even  though  it  has  been  there  a  number  of  years.  On  top  of 
the  cooker  is  a  vase  of  flowers,  and  no  sign  of  labor,  or  atten- 
tion, being  required,  save  for  the  tell-tale  silken  cord  that  con- 
nects with  the  button  near  the  window. 

These  things  are  fundamental.  They  herald  a  time  that  is 
to  be,  when  domestic  life  shall  be  joyous  and  free,  and  the 
common-place  duties  feats  of  beauty. 

And  now  let  us  pass  rapidly  over  some  other  articles  of 
equipment  which  although  they  be  perhaps  not  quite  so  near 
the  base  of  things,  are  nevertheless  just  as  important  in  the 
scheme  for  higher  standards,  in  that  they  make  practicable  a 
complete  plan  for  betterment,  and  are  in  themselves  excellent 
devices. 

First,  the  household  Incinerite,  that  proves  it  possible  to 
live  in  a  house  where  there  is  no  garbage.  While  this  utility 
has  a  purchase  price  higher  than  seems  justified,  it  will  pay  for 
itself  in  time,  if  the  disposal  of  garbage  costs  anything,  and 
of  course  it  does.  In  my  own  case,  the  time  involved  in  its 
disposal  from  the  sink  to  the  burying  place  was  an  item.  The 
consuming  of  it  right  near  the  sink,  at  the  cost  of  four  cents  a 
bushel,  with  no  heat  or  odor,  and  almost  no  ash,  makes  all 
thought  of  the  garbage  pail  a  thing  of  the  past,  and  the 
kitchen  sink  no  more  unattractive  than  would  be  a  marble 
basin  or  fountain.  It  may  be  argued  that  the  destruction  of 
garbage  is  a  waste,  but  until  we  know  what  better  to  do  with  it, 
it  is  assuredly  to  be  preferred  to  the  demoralizing  influence  of 
messy  and  unappetizing  mixtures  about. 

For  the  preparation  of  vegetables,  there  are  a  number  of 
devices  that  really  pay  when  properly  used.  A  potato  peeler 
costing  $8  does  the  work  very  well  indeed,  although  I  do  not 
own  one  of  these  and  have  only  watched  it  in  operation.  A 
bean  cutter,  at  $&,  is  easily  made  to  slit  a  pound  of  small 
green  beans  in  two  and  a  half  minutes,  run  by  hand,  and  a 
shorter  time  when  connected  with  "James,"  a  form  of  prepar- 
ing this  legume  that  would  take  at  least  twenty  minutes  by 
hand.  Other  vegetable  cutters,  the  pea  sheller,  the  raisin  and 
cherry  stoner,  the  puree  strainer,  the  nut-crackers,  the  apple 
peelers,  and  the  egg  cutters,  are  all  worth  investigating  and 

91 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

purchasing  when  one  is  quite  convinced  that  they  are  going  to 
be  used  often  enough  to  pay  for  themselves. 

The  Silver-Clean  pan  I  have  found  of  the  greatest  assist- 
ance in  conjunction  with  a  buffer,  making  it  possible  to  clean 
even  the  most  difficult  and  complicated  pieces  in  not  only  sur- 
prisingly short  time,  but  with  no  flying  of  powder,  tiring  of 
arms,  or  blackening  of  fingers. 

A  mangle  I  also  found  paid  for  itself,  not  only  because  it 
saves  fully  50  per  cent,  in  time,  as  compared  with  a  hand  iron, 
but  for  the  reason  that  it  is  much  less  tiring  in  the  motions 
required,  and  also  to  the  hand  that  lifts  the  iron.  As  to  the 
latter,  the  gas  and  electric  irons  are  wonderful  aids  in  that  one 
need  not  stand  to  press,  in  order  to  add  efficiency  by  the 
weight  of  one's  body,  to  the  fast  cooling  flat  iron  removed  from 
its  source  of  heat.  The  even  supply  at  the  very  place  of  use, 
makes  it  possible  to  iron  in  a  sitting  position  with  board,  chair, 
etc.,  comfortably  adjusted  to  one's  height  and  easiest  point 
of  motion. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  piece  of  housework  equipment, 
or  device,  that  has  come  to  my  knowledge,  is  the  electric  dish- 
washing machine.  This  is  a  simply  constructed,  very  good- 
looking  piece  of  furniture,  permanently  installed  only  to  the 
extent  of  being  connected  with  the  supply  of  gas,  water,  and 
electric  power.  With  the  very  minimum  of  boiling  water, — 
not  more  than  two  gallons — it  sterilizes  and  washes  about 
seventy  pieces  of  china  and  glass,  and  fifty  or  more  pieces  of 
silver  at  one  time.  All  this,  in  less  than  ten  minutes  from  the 
placing  of  them  in  the  box,  and  without  touching  so  much  as 
a  finger  to  the  dish-water  during  the  whole  most  dainty  and 
delicate  operation.  It  is  all  so  simple  and  yet  so  ingenious 
that  one  marvels  why  it  has  never  been  done  before,  and  as 
the  new  consciousness  of  scientifically  washing  dishes  is  de- 
veloped from  day  to  day,  the  wonder  grows  that  women  have 
for  so  long  been  slaves  to  the  old  method  of  dishpans,  cloths, 
mops,  towels,  and  all  the  other  unsanitary  and  unhygienic 
means. 

The  Dining-Room  was  one  of  the  hardest  problems.  How 
to  serve  the  family  in  a  comfortable  and  aesthetic  manner,  with- 

92 


HOUSEHOLD    EQUIPMENT,    UTENSILS,    DEVICES 

out  rising  from  the  table,  over-crowding  the  dishes,  or  making 
it  necessary  to  constantly  pass  the  foods,  seemed  to  consume  all 
my  powers  of  thought  for  some  time,  and  finally  the  answer 
came  through  adapting  two  old  devices  and  reforming  them 
for  modern  use.  One,  a  revolving  tray  in  the  center  of  the 
table,  which  we  named  the  "Table  Butler,"  capable  of  holding 
each  course,  and  moving  near  enough  to  each  plate  to  establish 
a  very  comfortable  and  independent  feeling.  The  other  proved 
to  be  the  original  dumb-waiter  of  more  than  a  century  ago, 
adjusted  to  five  disks  instead  of  three,  and  mounted  upon  the 
most  sensitive  and  easily  manipulated  wheels,  responding  in- 
stantly to  the  slightest  touch.  This  we  called  the  "Dumb-But- 
ler," moving  "him"  from  the  pantry  where  "he"  is  at  least  par- 
tially filled,  to  a  position  at  the  hostess'  left,  in  which  "he" 
occupies  a  negligible  place  as  far  as  the  table  space  is  concerned, 
and  holds  in  square  inch  capacity  and  in  orderly  routine,  just 
twice  as  much  as  the  largest  double-shelved  English  Tea-Cart. 
This  combination  has  solved  the  problem.  We  have  eliminated 
the  servant  in  the  room ;  the  need  of  considering  "those  who  are 
to  eat  after" ;  and  the  uncertainty  of  knowing  how  and  in  what 
form  the  next  course  will  appear,  and  it  is  truly  but  little  more 
work  for  the  hostess  than  all  the  things  summed  up  that  are 
liable  to  be  a  part  of 'the  more  conventional  method. 

Our  object  in  the  Housekeeping  Station  was  not  to  exploit 
any  individual  method,  or  opinion  of  my  own,  but  to  prove 
through  demonstration  and  illustration,  that  the  same  System 
that  is  applicable  to  the  most  productive  of  modern  industries, 
is  equally  related  to  the  needs  of  the  home,  and  is  capable  of 
even  a  higher  and  more  feminine  interpretation  and  transla- 
tion :  Standard  Equipment,  Standard  Conditions,  and  Standard 
Operations  being  the  basis  of  that  all-important  element — the 
elimination  of  waste, — and  thereby  the  conservation  of  the  home 
in  its  best  form.  Such  standards  are  not  arrived  at  except 
through  careful  study,  comparative  experiments,  and  general 
education,  for  we  mean  by  such  terms  nothing  short  of  the 
most  approved  scientific  methods  known,  and  the  cultivation  of 
one's  self  not  only  to  the  appreciation  of  their  value,  but  to  the 
proper  skill  and  adeptness  in  their  use.  In  other  words,  the 

93 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

conditions  must  not  only  fit  the  person,  but  to  gain  any  real 
results,  the  person  must  be  trained  to  fit  the  standards.  Merely 
to  own  the  materials,  is  to  burden  one's  self  with  expense,  con- 
fusion, and  danger,  but  to  desire  the  tools  in  order  to  produce 
higher  and  more  effective  results,  and  to  be  able  to  relate  them, 
incorporate  them,  and  properly  handle  them  in  one's  domestic 
career,  is  to  add  not  only  a  world  of  interest  to  the  day's  routine, 
but  to  avoid  the  danger  of  disappointment  and  extravagance, 
so  often  accompanying  investments  unintelligently  entered  upon. 

While  our  decisions  at  the  Station  as  to  equipment,  utensils, 
devices,  and  all  the  rest  of  it,  are  necessarily  temporary  and 
transient,  for  better  things  may  be  developed  to-morrow  in 
every  line,  their  significance  rests  only  upon  the  fact  that  they 
are  based  upon  a  scientific  and  professional  theory  of  the  rapid 
evolution  of  housework,  the  practical  doing  away  with  the 
drudgery  point  of  view,  and  the  belief  that  stultifying  and 
unpleasant  conditions  must  forever  abide  in  the  round  of  home 
duties. 

We  have  kept  apace  with  inventions  and  improvements,  dis- 
carding each  as  something  better  came  into  view,  with  the  con- 
viction that  what  is  really  needed  by  the  average  home-maker 
is  not  so  much  these  added  possessions,  as  the  feeling  of  faith 
and  hope  in  a  domestic  future.  This  may  be  attained  for  the 
wanting  through  the  adjustment  of  herself  to  advancing  modern 
economic  utilities.  There  are  numberless  articles  upon  the 
market,  well-made  and  suitable  to  certain  conditions.  Our  idea 
was  to  choose  one  representing  the  best  class  of  each  in  its  line, 
proving  the  System  thereby,  and  not  simply  the  exploiting  of 
novelties,  or  the  insistence  upon  any  special  make.  The  small 
refrigerator  plant,  or  ice  machine,  is  coming.  We  already  have 
a  number  from  which  to  choose,  but  up  to  date  we  cannot  fit 
them  in  practically  to  the  average  home  with  the  assurance  of 
economy;  although  "The  Montclair"  and  the  "Automatic 
Household  Refrigerator"  seem  to  be  the  answer  to  this  need. 
Both  are  worthy  of  investigation. 

Hot  Water  Heaters  are  numerous,  and  nothing  so  far  we 
believe  can  give  greater  comfort  than  the  class  of  which  the 
Ruud  is  an  example,  if  properly  used,  the  burners  cleaned  oc- 

94 


HOUSEHOLD    EQUIPMENT,    UTENSILS,    DEVICES 

casionally  and  the  hot  water  not  wasted.  For  actual  economy 
in  money,  no  method  of  heating  water  has  been  devised  that  is 
to  be  compared  with  the  tea  kettle,  or  tank,  over  a  properly 
regulated  flame,  together  with  a  boiler  connected  with  the 
furnace  during  more  than  half  the  year.  The  thermostat,  ther- 
mometer, and  regitherm  should  have  a  word  in  passing,  for 
they  deserve  to  be  more  generally  used  throughout  the  house- 
hold temperature  conditions,  and  lastly,  a  word  for  the  electric 
floor  polisher  and  scrubbing  machine,  for  it  is  most  efficient  and 
effective,  "doing  over,"  as  we  say,  old  floors  and  rewaxing, 
cleaning  and  polishing  the  newer  ones.  While  any  woman  can 
readily  operate  this  machine,  it  is  more  suited  perhaps  to  the 
disposition  and  skill  of  a  man.  However,  not  having  one  handy, 
should  not  prevent  the  floor  having  a  refinish  should  it  require 
such  treatment.  The  elevator  ice-box  or  cupboard  is  also  an 
ingenious  device,  serving  as  a  wine  closet,  a  fuel  or  refreshment 
lift,  or  an  extra  storage  space  when  one  prefers. 

A  little  window-washing  machine  is  now  a  subject  of  investi- 
gation. This  consists  of  a  tiny  motor,  a  flexible  shaft,  and  a 
revolving  pad.  It,  however,  does  not  yet  successfully  work  in 
the  corners.  Here  we  watch  and  wait. 

But  the  list  of  realities  and  possibilities  in  household  equip- 
ment is  as  long  as  the  demand,  the  quality  in  exact  proportion 
to  the  kind  of  demand,  and  the  progress  will  be  as  rapid  as 
proper  education  can  be  made  to  open  the  way.  Equipment, 
and  all  it  stands  for,  is  worthy  the  most  profound  study.  The 
process  of  adequately  equipping  one's  self  for  service  is  in  pro- 
portion to  the  standard  of  service  desired.  The  apparatus  is 
involved  in,  and  second  only,  to  one's  ideals  in  operation. 
Proper  utensils  should  be  ever  at  hand  with  which  best  to 
succeed,  and  newer  and  newer  devices  of  finer  and  finer  excellence 
must  be  the  result  of  our  determined  and  united  demand — for — 
what  we  believe  to  be — the  Practical  Solution  of  the  present 
Servant  Problem. 


CHAPTER    X 

THE    ELIMINATION    OF    DRUDGERY 

"The  discontent  with  the  work  you  are  compelled  to  do,  comes  from 
doing  it  in  the  spirit  of  a  drudge  " 

"Thou  0  God,  hast  given  all  good  things  to  man  at  the  price  of 

labor  " 

"Housework  is  drudgery,"  or  so  it  has  been  generally  de- 
clared and  with  such  an  air  of  finality  by  supposedly  thought- 
ful men  and  women  everywhere,  that  the  world  has  become 
impressed  and  hypnotized  with  what  might  be  called  the  mere 
ghost  of  a  truth.  The  fact  being  that  the  sense  of  drudgery 
does  not  exist  where  there  is  a  creative  and  properly  motivated 
attitude.  The  humbler  and  less  interesting  tasks  are  done  with 
a  buoyancy  that  foretells  a  living  result.  All  the  dreary  rou- 
tine performed  for  routine's  sake,  the  mechanical  results,  the 
lack  of  initiation,  and  the  motiveless  and  inert  manner  of  the 
worker  are  as  the  phantom  effort  of  the  Godless  man.  There 
are  two  kinds  of  drudgery  that  stand  out  very  clearly  in  our 
minds,  although  we  find  but  one  root  for  these  twin  branches. 
First:  the  constant  performance  of  servile  labor  that  makes  one 
feel  as  a  slave.  And  Second:  the  necessity  of  toiling  at  some- 
thing in  which  the  heart  does  not  enter.  Both,  however,  spring 
from  a  common  meaning  of  dragging,  putting,  or  drawing  one's 
self  together,  in  order  to  perform  a  grim  task ;  therefore  we  say 
the  element  of  drudgery  is  of  the  mind  as  well  as  of  the  body, 
and  is  the  direct  result  of  doing  work  in  an  uninterested,  me- 
chanical, or  spiritless  manner.  The  remedy  being  to  cut  down 
the  daily  demands  upon  the  worker,  to  a  place  where  body  and 
mind  can  effectively  co-operate,  and  where  the  spirit  is  prop- 
erly animated  through  a  better  understanding  of  the  true  and 
essential  and  through  the  freeing  of  itself  from  the  burdens  of 
the  purely  conventional  and  non-essential.  In  most  cases  one 
acquires  the  feeling  of  a  drudge  not  because  of  over-work, 
heavy,  hard,  or  menial  labor,  but  rather  for  the  want  of  a  right 

96 


THE    ELIMINATION    OF    DRUDGERY 

sense  of  the  meaning  and  importance  of  the  less  interesting  tasks 
and  the  conditions  and  surroundings  under  which  they  are  per- 
formed. 

It  is  perfectly  possible  to  take  the  crudest  and  most  primi- 
tive of  occupations  and  perform  them  with  the  attitude  of  a 
scientist,  that  is,  note  all  the  facts,  study  the  parts,  relate  them 
to  the  whole,  and  cultivate  the  standard.  As  for  instance:  the 
writer  became  interested  to  know  how  best  to  lift  heavy  weights, 
so  as  to  profit  rather  than  suffer  from  the  result,  and  among 
other  things  took  care  of  the  furnace  for  a  number  of  months 
in  succession.  The  putting  in  of  coal,  the  shaking,  and  the 
taking  out  of  ashes  became  an  exercise  in  physical  training. 
One  that  returned  in  good  vitality,  all  that  it  took  in  energy. 
Besides  developing  a  certain  masterful  feeling  in  understanding 
the  science  of  lifting  weights.  It  was  a  regular  and  uniform 
effort  of  the  body  and  mind  for  each  day.  A  fairly  good-sized 
shovel  of  coal  was  found  to  weigh  twenty  pounds,  and  it  became 
a  point  of  interest  to  try  to  feel  just  that  amount,  no  more  and 
no  less,  at  each  lift.  The  number  of  shovels  used  a  day  was 
listed  upon  a  wall  pad,  which  determined  not  only  how  long  a 
ton  lasted,  but  approximately  whether  it  had  been  honest  weight. 
Incidentally  another  way  to  check  up  the  coal  dealer  was  to 
mark  the  bin  at  the  point  of  the  proper  measure,  in  lieu  of 
appropriate  scales.  The  walk  from  where  the  fuel  was  stored, 
to  the  furnace,  was  the  shortest  possible  distance,  just  Jong 
enough  to  note  the  foot  pounds  and  the  manner  of  moving  under 
a  load,  and  to  get  a  balance  that  was  right  for  the  aim,  the  swing, 
and  the  proper  guiding  of  the  shovel  through  a  door  little  wider 
than  itself,  that  the  coal  may  be  evenly  distributed  over  the 
whole  bed.  Precision,  concentration,  and  rhythm  were  all  essen- 
tial elements.  To  lift  even  twenty  pounds  repeatedly  and  not 
have  it  a  fatiguing  operation,  it  is  necessary  to  make  the  effort 
from  the  entire  body,  centering  the  force  of  the  feeling,  however, 
in  the  feet.  Not  with  a  spreading  and  heavy  sensation,  but 
rather  with  a  springiness  from  the  ball  and  great  toe.  A  lift- 
ing from  the  inside  of  the  forward  part  of  the  foot,  while  ex- 
panding the  lungs  so  as  to  fill  the  body  with  air  before  each 
effort,  a  precaution  that  makes  it  both  safe  and  profitable  to 

97 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC   ENGINEERING 

raise  and  carry  a  heavier  load  than  has  seemed  suitable  to  the 
average  woman.  The  limit  being  one's  inability  to  so  evenly 
distribute  the  weight  as  to  make  of  the  entire  body  a  flexible, 
animated  lever,  braced  only  from  the  inner  side  of  the  great 
toe.  When  the  strain  is  allowed  to  center  in  the  back,  the  arms, 
chest,  or  abdomen,  the  risk  becomes  too  great  for  safety,  and 
instead  of  such  effort  accumulating  strength,  it  is  inclined  to 
break  down  the  tissues  about  the  place  of  contraction.  The 
woman  who  carries  the  great  bundle  on  her  head,  adds  to  her 
strength  and  endurance  by  virtue  of  the  even  bodily  effort 
centered  in  the  feet  of  necessity  that  the  balance  be  sustained. 
The  uncultivated  act  differs,  however,  from  the  cultivated,  in 
the  fact  that  the  peasant  woman  generally  centers  all  strain 
upon  the  heel  and  spine,  while  the  educated  body  shifts  the 
weight  to  a  triune  basis.  The  toe  as  the  bracer,  the  diaphragm 
and  spine  together  the  support.  And  so  one  might  note  and 
study  all  sorts  of  facts  and  useful  results  even  in  the  shovelling 
of  coal.  The  example  and  suggestion  of  the  care  of  the  fur- 
nace is  given  merely  to  show  that  the  crudest,  commonest  and 
most  physical  of  tasks  may  be  entirely  taken  out  of  the  realm 
of  drudgery  and  made  to  return  cultural  profit  simply  by  the 
introduction  of  a  little  thought  and  doing  the  thing  from  an 
analytic  and  synthetic  basis,  raising  the  standard  of  one's 
motive  from  that  of  a  bare  driving  necessity  to  get  the  work 
done,  to  the  ideal  of  making  every  task,  no  matter  how  uncon- 
genial in  the  beginning,  give  a  return  of  profit  and  pleasure  by 
relating  it  in  whole  and  in  part  to  the  highest  conception  of  the 
object  of  its  performance.  This  result  is  in  direct  proportion 
to  the  quality  of  thought  and  action  used. 

We  have  for  so  long  had  such  a  false  notion  of  the  place  and 
value  of  physical  work,  we  have  separated  the  mind  from  labor, 
even  to  the  point  of  imagining  one  could  think  one's  way 
through  life,  believing  such  an  intellectual  conception  superior 
to  the  use  of  one's  two  hands.  But  the  more  widely  thoughtful 
man  and  woman  knows  perfectly  well  that  the  trained  intellect 
must  react  upon  bodily  effort,  if  one  would  avoid  anemic  and 
unhealthy  mentality.  It  almost  seems  as  if  the  whole  people 
were  busy  trying  to  rise  above  work  in  order  to  realize  a  higher 

98 


THE    ELIMINATION    OF    DRUDGERY 

culture,  drudgingly  doing  what  must  be,  in  order  to  get  rid  of 
doing  it,  and  by  shifting  the  burden  upon  somebody  else  less 
able  to  carry  the  load.  The  desire  for  pleasure  is  rampant. 
"Eat,  drink  and  be  merry,  for  to-morrow  we  die,"  is  the  motto 
of  many  an  otherwise  sensible  person,  even  though  it  is  known 
that  one  cannot  find  any  permanent  merriness  in  mere  eating 
and  drinking,  and  it  is  not  thinkable  that  life  is  so  transient 
that  we  can  die  to-morrow,  for  though  we  pass  from  this  sphere, 
we  must  take  with  us  the  results  of  a  personality  builded  here, 
which  is  after  all  the  only  thing  worth  having,  that  is  really 
one's  own.  Such  a  personality  is  the  result  of  the  combined 
and  active  powers  of  the  individual  through  and  in  some  par- 
ticular kind  of  work. 

Therefore,  while  it  is  a  truth  that  most  of  us  are  having  too 
little  real  pleasure,  and  very  much  too  little  leisure,  it  is  a 
fact  that  these  essential  elements  to  well-being,  can  be  best  and 
oftenest  provided  by  arriving  at  them  through  one's  daily  occu- 
pations and  permanent  environment.  To  force  one's  self  to  do 
six  days  in  the  week  what  is  felt  to  be  drudgery,  and  then  to 
cut  loose  on  the  seventh  and  follow  that  phantom  of  temporary 
pleasure,  only  to  return  and  drive  for  another  six,  is  giving 
drudgery  the  upper  hand  in  its  effect,  ultimately  to  end  in 
disaster,  or  an  abnormal  craving  for  more  artificial  pleasure  in 
order  to  strike  a  balance.  Is  it  not  healthier,  wiser,  and  more 
effective  to  eliminate  the  sense  of  drudgery,  and  unpleasantness 
in  work,  by  teaching  and  demonstrating  the  scientific  way  of 
doing  everything?  By  applying  the  system  of  efficiency  to  the 
end  that  the  crudest  of  tasks  may  be  an  education  to  the  worker, 
lifting  him  with  the  help  of  his  own  encouraged  initiation,  to  not 
only  higher  earning  capacity,  but  greater  appreciation  and 
buoyancy?  There  is  joy  in  accomplishment,  more  joy  in  prog- 
ress, and  most  joy  in  accumulating  possessions.  Not  those,  how- 
ever, of  a  temporary  and  material  kind,  but  rather  the  possession 
of  a  talent  well  developed,  of  a  capacity  to  enjoy  and  sympa- 
thize with,  of  knowledge  to  do  and  to  be  one's  best,  and  the  accu- 
mulation of  a  store  of  good  things  to  give,  that  can  only  be  the 
result  of  experiences  used  wisely.  Such  possessions  cannot 
come  through  the  limited  effort  of  buying,  or  thinking  them  into 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

A  spiritless  toiler  is  a  deadly  and  pathetic  spectacle.  "The 
Man  with  the  Hoe"  is  akin  to  "The  Girl  in  the  Kitchen."  Each 
unconscious  of  the  great  service  in  which  they  lead,  ignorant 
of  its  meaning  to  themselves  and  to  their  fellow  beings ;  moved 
by  the  common  thought  that  theirs  is  a  lot  of  drudgery  from 
which  there  is  no  escape.  But  surely  it  cannot  be  that  a  Power 
that  has  builded  this  beautiful  World,  has  made  human  beings 
who  must  forever  toil  and  drudge  for  a  mere  and  meager  exist- 
ence. We  know  it  cannot  be,  and  that  nothing  but  our  blind- 
ness has  ever  made  it  so  appear. 

Education  should  give  us  a  wider  outlook  in  our  daily  tasks. 
With  a  strong  enough  reason  for  doing,  the  ways  and  means 
become  a  pleasure  in  performance.  There  is  no  longer  "just  so 
much  drudgery  to  be  gone  through  with,"  in  order  to  finally 
"arrive."  The  "arriving"  is  all  along  the  way,  because  each 
effort  is  an  "arrival"  in  itself.  The  every-day  exercises,  duties 
and  cares,  which  we  are  wont  to  look  upon  as  drudgery,  are 
well  called  "the  weights  and  counterpoises  of  the  clock  of  time, 
giving  its  pendulum  a  true  vibration  and  its  hands  a  regular 
motion,  and  when  they  cease  to  hang  upon  the  wheels,  the  pendu- 
lum no  longer  swings,  the  hands  no  longer  move,  the  clock 
stands  still."  To  try  to  avoid  these,  or  to  force  one's  self 
through  them,  in  order  to  play  to-morrow,  shows  a  lack  of 
appreciation  of  their  real  place  in  the  purpose  of  life.  Far 
more  enlightened  is  the  attitude  that  turns  and  faces  what 
would  be  drudgery,  with  the  conviction  that  each  and  every  task 
can  give  in  return  much  that  is  instructive  and  pleasant  if  the 
worker  will  but  become  responsive  and  lend  himself  to  the  study 
of  what  it  would  teach.  There  is  pleasure  in  the  doing  of  a 
thing  with  one's  entire  self,  but  when  only  a  few  muscles,  or  a 
single  faculty  is  used,  at  the  expense  of  others,  it  enters  very 
near  the  portals  of  pronounced  drudgery.  The  thing  to  do  is 
to  so  analyze,  or  have  analyzed  the  work  in  hand  as  to  preserve 
the  essentials,  and  strip  it  of  everything  that  needlessly  makes 
for  slavery  of  mind,  or  body.  It  is  unhealthy  and  degenerating 
to  work  as  a  drudge.  No  one  should  be  immoral  enough  either 
to  do  it  one's  self,  or  to  require  another  to  so  work.  As  far  as 
housework  is  concerned,  there  are  enough  machines  on  the  market 

100 


THE    ELIMINATION    OF 

to  do  all  the  heaviest  and  most  laborious  operations,  leaving 
time  to  properly  consider  and  perform  the  necessary  tasks  of 
the  different  departments  in  their  relation  to  each  other,  to  the 
welfare  of  the  body,  and  to  the  home  as  a  whole.  No  one  part 
should  absorb  the  attention  to  the  exclusion  of  other  equally 
important  departments.  No  work  should  be  done  in  a  manner 
that  does  not  add  to  bodily  strength  and  beauty,  and  the  cre- 
ative atmosphere  of  the  home  should  at  all  times  be  sufficient 
motive  for  jealously  guarding  it  against  any  possibility  of  any 
continued  drudgery  happening  under  its  roof. 

In  the  following  chapters  we  will  discuss  the  subject  further, 
and  in  detail.  It  is  sufficient  here  to  merely  suggest  the  impor- 
tance of  doing  away  with  an  unhealthy  and  destructive  element 
that  makes  for  trouble  all  along  the  line.  That  it  can  be  elimi- 
nated has  been  proven.  It  is  largely  a  matter  of  attitude,  edu- 
cation and  conviction.  The  wise  man  learns  most  from  the 
humblest  and  simplest  of  agents ;  why  should  not  the  wise  woman 
reach  a  height  from  the  humblest  and  simplest  of  tasks?  Like 
many  another  great  step  forward,  it  is  so  easy,  natural,  and 
within  everybody's  reach  that  we  feel  it  cannot  be  true,  but  so 
have  been  all  other  real  advances.  We  do  so  much  with  no  ex- 
cuse save  that  others  do  likewise,  that  when  we  scientifically 
analyze  the  work  of  a  home,  we  find  much  that  is  done  in  a  labori- 
ous and  spiritless  fashion  that  had  better  be  left  undone.  This 
higher  kind  of  management  would  not  only  help  to  eliminate 
drudgery,  but  would  give  time  for  the  introduction  of  some 
pleasure,  and  the  planning  of  right  leisure,  without  which  no 
life  can  grow  prosperously.  Leisure  means  proper  preparation 
for  the  next  task.  It  means  coming  in  touch  with  the  inspira- 
tion that  makes  for  better  work.  It  means  the  raising  of  stand- 
ards so  that  every  worker  can  come  into  his  own,  and  will  love 
his  work,  not  simply  because  he  understands  it,  but  because 
through  it  he  feels  himself  being  raised  to  higher  and  higher 
levels,  and  knows  that  he  is  accumulating  those  results  which 
alone  are  worth  the  best  of  one's  life  and  labor,  a  trained  mind 
and  body,  and  a  spirit  from  which  one  is  ever  ready  to  give 
in  abundance. 

Our  point  is  that  these  things  may  be  acquired  from  the 

101 


/.  .PRINCIPLE?  OF  DOMESTIC  ENGINEERING 


commonest  of  every-day  tasks,  when  those  tasks  are  made  to 
give  up  "all  that  in  them  is,"  and  the  worker  appreciates  the 
value  of  the  contact,  and  what  there  is  to  be  had  for  the  wanting. 
That  "Woman's  work  is  never  done,"  is  a  kind  of  accepted 
domestic  slavery  from  which  she  must,  and  will  be,  freed.  But 
from  which  she  cannot  escape  honorably  until  such  time  as  she 
has  put  her  intelligence,  her  heart,  and  her  ability  into  service, 
and  shall  determine  both  the  amount  and  the  quality  of  the 
work  of  her  house,  for  "Who  sweeps  a  room  as  for  Thy  laws, 
makes  that  and  the  action  fine." 


102 


CHAPTER    XI 

TIME    AND    MOTION    STUDY 

"Let  thy   motions  prove  economically  productive,  sportively  free,, 
and  pray  hug  to  thy  consciousness  that  great  element — Beauty" 

In  every  motion,  whether  we  will  it  or  not,  whether  one  is 
conscious  of  it  or  not,  there  are  to  be  found  three  motives  that 
influence  and  encourage  continuously  the  vital  construction,  or 
the  careless  destruction  of  Personality — that  wondrously  com- 
plex and  creative  work  of  art,  which  Heaven  and  Earth  bids  us 
build  to  its  use. 

The  motive  of  accomplishment,  or  the  doing  of  a  thing  in  the 
most  effective  way. 

The  motive  of  exhilaration,  or  the  pleasure  in  action. 

And  the  motive  of  Beauty,  or  the  quality  of  form  in  use. 

These  three  natural  efforts  are  ever  ready  for  expression,  and 
they  act  and  react  upon  one  at  every  turn.  We  may  learn  through 
intelligent  practice  to  accomplish  with  greater  and  greater  effi- 
ciency, and  more  and  more  directness,  until  there  is  developed 
a  surprising  degree  of  skill.  On  the  other  hand,  with  little 
thought  of  how  a  thing  is  to  be  done,  merely  the  controlling 
desire  of  getting  through  with  the  task — whatever  it  may  be — 
not  only  no  particular  adeptness  is  developed,  but  a  certain 
careless  and  indifferent  method,  often  slow,  awkward  and  untidy, 
leaves  its  impress  forcibly  implanted  upon  both  mind  and  body. 
So  also  when  movement  is  unnecessarily  fatiguing.  Perhaps 
fatigue  poison  in  the  system  is  the  most  insidious  of  the  human 
ailments.  Certain  it  is  that  when  one  works  continuously  with 
little  or  no  pleasure  in  the  doing,  ignorant  of  how  best  to  con- 
serve one's  strength,  and  enjoy  each  move  as  it  is  made  in  rapid 
succession,  through  a  feeling  of  right  and  free  action,  health 
becomes  a  most  doubtful  guarantee.  And  as  for  beauty!  How 
few,  how  very  few  of  us  begin  to  realize  that  the  form  and 
expression  of  every  motion  we  make,  prints  indelibly  its  perma- 

103 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

nent  effect  upon  the  body,  making  one  ugly,  stiff,  and  angular, 
or  charming,  easy  and  graceful  in  proportion  and  according  to 
the  kind  and  quality  of  each  motion  made. 

With  these  facts  in  mind,  Motion  Study  becomes  not  only 
an  economic  necessity  for  the  home,  but  a  technique  in  bodily 
action,  making  for  physical,  mental  and  spiritual  culture,  or — 
as  we  prefer  to  call  it — Personality-culture — the  development 
of  the  entire  person.  While  each  of  these  three  sides  of  motion 
study  is  an  immense  and  absorbing  subject  in  itself  that  can 
barely  more  than  be  touched  upon  in  a  book  of  this  sort,  yet  each 
is  so  truly  important  in  our  consideration  of  housework  that  we 
feel  a  three-fold  light  on  the  subject  is  essential,  even  though  it 
be  but  a  faint  glimmer  of  the  illumination  that  must  come  to 
each  who  will  thoughtfully  practice  with  such  suggestions,  and 
follow  the  work  that  has  already  been  done. 

Motion  Study,  although  not  mentioned  as  one  of  the  listed 
principles  of  Scientific  Management,  is  nevertheless  a  very  large 
part  of  the  whole  system.  In  fact,  it  is  the  working  element  of 
each,  and  the  final  test  of  all,  for  the  economics  of  an  enterprise 
is  in  the  carrying  out  of  an  idea,  with  the  material  plus  the 
labor  or  action  required  to  make  that  material  give  up  its 
highest  possibilities  of  usefulness.  If  we  can  reduce  the  number 
of  motions  in  the  process,  we  increase  in  proportion  the  value 
of  the  material.  If  also  these  motions  can  be  made  to  give 
in  return,  health,  strength  and  beauty  to  the  one  performing 
them,  motion  study  becomes  the  most  magnificent  tool  yet  dis- 
covered for  the  conservation  of  resources,  particularly  the  re- 
sources of  human  life,  for  it  is  not  yet  even  imagined  how  much 
time,  strength  and  money  is  wasted  in  useless  motions. 

Although  it  is  often  looked  upon  by  the  unthinking  as  being 
a  mere  means  for  "speeding  up,"  modern  motion  study  is  rather 
a  result  of  the  realization  among  employers  of  men,  that  the 
well-being  of  their  workmen  is  of  first  and  most  vital  economic 
value.  To  "speed"  by  artificial  means,  such  as  a  speed-maker, 
or  a  machine  time-grinder,  is  clearly  bad  business  and  results 
in  loss  to  both  staff  and  line.  The  prosperity  of  the  workmen 
must  therefore  be  carefully  considered  and  every  scientific 
means  known,  used  to  make  him  most  "fit"  for  his  occupation. 

104 


TIME    AND    MOTION    STUDY 

Motion  study  became  therefore  one  of  these  scientific  means,  and 
while  it  has  always  been  used  in  a  general  way  in  taking  the 
time  of  a  complete  operation  and  noting  the  movements  over 
all,  for  speed  and  convenience  sake,  the  analyzing  of  each  piece 
of  .work  into  its  units,  the  use  of  a  stop-watch,  pedometer,  etc., 
and  the  training  for  just  the  right  motions  at  the  right  speed, 
the  organizing  of  one's  surroundings  into  standardized  condi- 
tions, with  proper  implements  and  a  proper  estimate,  not  only 
of  each  unit,  but  of  each  result  desired,  and  its  relation  to  other 
operations  in  which  it  is  involved ;  this  we  find  is  a  matter  of 
recent  scientific  application.  The  purpose  being  that  the  best 
conditions  for,  and  the  best  effect  upon  the  worker  may  be 
accompaniments  in  the  making  of  the  best  article. 

The  mere  walking  about  the  house  in  the  performance  of 
one's  tasks  is  a  point  worth  considering.  After  many  tests  with 
the  aid  of  a  pedometer,  the  writer  found  that  she  walked  indoors 
on  an  average  of  seven  miles  a  day,  occasionally  covering  twelve 
or  fourteen — with  the  attention  drawn  to  such  steps  and  the  con- 
sciousness of  these  miles,  she  has  been  able  to  reduce  the  dis- 
tance considerably. 

With  this  much  of  the  subject  as  a  background,  let  us  focus 
our  attention  upon  its  scientific  relation  to  the  performance  of 
housework  and  some  of  the  special  features  taken  from  the  Ex- 
periment Station  in  Colonia. 

It  has  so  often  been  said  that  housework  is  made  up  of 
such  a  variety  of  tasks  and  so  dependent  upon  the  personal  note 
that  few,  if  any,  time  and  motion  studies  could  be  taken  in  a 
home  that  would  be  useful  as  records  or  practice-instructions 
for  any  other  class  of  home.  This  is  not  true  if  we  reduce  the 
task  to  be  considered  to  its  simplest  units.  There  is  but  one 
best  way  of  doing  everything,  just  as  there  is  but  one  best 
reason  for  its  being  done.  And  if  it  is  true,  as  it  is,  that  men 
have  found  motion  study  of  the  highest  value,  and  Scientific 
Management  paying  best  in  repair  and  special-order  shops 
where  because  of  the  number  of  variables,  the  waste  is  great- 
est; so  women  will  find  that  in  the  home,  where  the  variables 
seem  endless,  the  application  of  time  and  motion  study  will  be 
found  to  be  of  all  places  most  profitable. 

105 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

Time  and  motion  study  means  trained  movement.  It  means, 
as  Frank  Gilbreth  says — "to  find  and  perpetuate  the  scheme  of 
perfection,  by  discovering  and  classifying  the  best  practice,  de- 
ducing the  laws  and  applying  these  laws  to  standardize  practice, 
either  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  output,  or  decreasing  hours 
of  labor,  or  both,"  and  the  writer  would  add,  for  the  making, 
conserving,  and  developing  of  personality. 

The  first  thing  in  the  practice  is  to  provide  one's  self  with 
a  stop-watch  and  a  pencil  and  pad,  or  chart.  No  records  of 
real  value  can  be  taken  until  one  can  put  the  parts  of  a  minute 
together;  until  the  turn  of  the  hand  can  be  made  to  mean  so 
much  time  and  so  much  value.  Take  for  instance,  the  simple 
operation  of  scraping  a  plate.  Try  and  discover  through  ex- 
periment in  time  and  motion,  the  best  practice  for  such  a  task. 
The  result  of  our  work  was  to  find  it  took  about  twenty  strokes 
with  the  ordinary  dinner  knife  to  scrape  an  ordinary  dinner  plate 
ready  for  the  dishwater,  and  then  it  was  not  "standard"  clean, 
besides  the  fatigue,  the  unnecessary  noise,  the  possible  injury 
to  the  enamel  surface,  the  bad  reflex  effect  upon  the  worker  of 
the  inefficient  movement,  and  the  time  consumed  which  was  esti- 
mated to  be  a  quarter  of  a  minute.  The  better  way  being  to 
have  at  hand  a  plate  scraper,  a  piece  of  bread,  or  a  small  soft 
paper  napkin,  or  doilies,  which  can  be  daintily  crumpled  between 
the  fingers  of  the  right  hand,  lift  the  plate  with  the  first  and 
second  fingers  and  the  thumb  of  the  left,  and  drop  what  will 
into  the  garbage  receptacle  with  the  first  move,  then  with  the 
paper  circle  the  plate  with  the  right  hand,  from  the  top  guid- 
ing the  doily  by  the  wrist  around  to  the  top  again  and  down 
the  center  and  off.  This  method  we  found  to  be  efficient,  noise- 
less and  safe,  carrying  with  it  an  educational  value  in  movement 
and  consuming  only  -^  of  a  minute  per  plate,  a  gain  of 
66f  per  cent.,  besides  having  a  distinct  relation  to  the  kind  of 
dishwashing  done  and  the  other  related  standards  that  have  to  do 
with  staff  and  line.  This  we  found  could  be  motioned  in  a 
rhythm  of  four-four  time. 

Again,  the  simple  operation  of  cutting  bread.  The  usual  way 
being  to  gather  the  knife,  the  board  and  the  bread  together, 
find  perhaps  that  the  knife  needs  sharpening,  step  somewhere 

106 


TIME    AND    MOTION    STUDY 

for  a  stone  or  proper  tool,  return  to  the  bread  and  saw  many 
more  times  than  is  either  good  for  the  hand  or  the  straightness 
of  the  slice.  A  better  way  being  to  have  a  board,  with  two 
knives  of  different  sizes  encased  therein,  and  a  small  stone  in- 
laid on  either  side,  hung  just  at  the  left  of  the  bread  box.  In 
our  case  there  was  made  a  sliding  shelf  that  pulled  out  to  fit  it. 
First  motion  with  the  right  hand,  open  the  bread  box,  take  out 
bread.  Left,  pull  out  shelf,  unhook  bread  board.  Right,  place 
loaf  on  board.  Left,  place  hand  on  loaf.  Right,  take  knife 
from  scabbard  in  board,  pass  once  or  twice  over  stone  if  neces- 
sary, and  cut.  The  sharper  the  knife,  the  easier  and  fewer 
motions  in  the  cutting,  the  least  crumbs  wasted  and  scattered, 
and — with  half  an  eye — the  straighter  the  slice.  This,  like  the 
plate  example,  gave  back  about  the  same  ratio  in  assets. 

So  with  every  unit  of  housework.  Each  thing  studied  in  its 
parts,  and  a  stop-watch  used  for  each  part,  not  once,  but  over 
and  over  again,  these  standardized  parts  put  together,  and  the 
process  of  the  whole  operation  rebuilt  in  the  conditions  and  the 
number  and  kind  of  movements  required,  will  prove  to  be  not 
only  of  the  greatest  cultural  value  to  the  worker,  and  to  house- 
work, but  one  of  the  greatest  factors  in  efficient  management 
and  the  economics  of  time,  strength  and  money. 

While  a  completed  task  may  differ  in  the  result  desired  in 
each  home,  the  separate  parts,  or  standard  units  of  these  tasks, 
is  the  same,  and  these  it  is  that  are  of  universal  use  as  records 
for  standard  practice.  The  elimination  of  waste  motions  is  also 
not  only  of  personal  interest,  but  a  matter  of  standard  practice, 
for  there  is  the  law  of  movement  that  action  and  reaction  are 
equal ;  if  therefore  any  action  is  wasteful,  that  is  not  the  worst 
of  it,  one  must  suffer  also  from  its  reaction,  for  the  effect  of  the 
waste  motion  is  by  this  law  waste  nerve. 

Again,  the  organizing  of  one's  surroundings  so  that  the  great- 
est efficiency  may  result,  is  an  individual  and  personal  matter, 
and  yet  the  law  of  motion  and  the  principles  of  Scientific  Man- 
agement make  much  of  this  as  standard  practice  for  all.  For 
whatever  tasks  in  the  house  are  to  be  done,  and  whatever  are 
oftenest  repeated,  should  be  so  organized  as  not  only  to  have  the 
most  perfect  form  of  routing  for  the  material  used,  but  the 

107 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

Uools,  the  proper  implements,  the  right  equipment,  utensils  and 
'devices  should  be  as  near  at  the  point  of  need  as  time  and  mo- 
^tion  study  can  determine  is  the  least  waste. 

Kitchen  cabinets  are  suggestive  here,  and  yet  at  the  Experi- 
ment Station  we  have  the  belief  that  a  more  flexible  form  of 
organization  is  for  most  people  to  be  preferred.  To  be  confined 
to  one  spot  and  to  certain  sizes  and  shapes,  whether  the  family 
numbers  two  or  twenty-two,  is  distinctly  a  disadvantage,  al- 
though it  is  much  easier  to  purchase  a  cabinet  even  at  an  ex- 
pensive price  oftentimes,  than  to  think  out  one's  own  system  of 
routing  and  organization.  In  our  case  certain  utensils  and 
materials  were  stored  in  cupboards,  and  only  those  assembled 
that  were  required  for  the  Season,  or  the  immediate  size  of  the 
family,  thus  simplifying  considerably  the  cabinet  idea,  making 
it  possible  to  have  a  variety  of  cabinets,  as  it  were,  at  various 
points,  when  occasion  demanded;  a  pastry  cupboard,  a  work- 
table,  a  vegetable  shelf,  etc.  The  proper  things  assembled 
about  the  place,  best  suited  to  the  routing  for  the  special  work 
to  be  done. 

In  this  way  it  makes  it  possible  to  plan  each  task  ahead,  from 
the  center  around  which  it  is  assembled;  keeping  several  under 
way  at  once  when  advisable*  The  hand  learns  just  where  to 
move  in  the  dispatching  of  each  subject,  and  the  head  goes  its 
way  in  planning  and  co-ordinating  the  different  parts,  for  they 
should  work  together  by  never  interfering  with  each  other.  In 
the  study  and  practice  of  time  and  motion  experiments,  both 
head  and  hand  should  be  keenly  alive  to  every  phase  of  detail 
that  can  be  grasped  and  analyzed ;  the  head  thinking  them  out, 
and  the  hand  feeling  them  out  through  close  concentration,  but 
when  standard  units  have  been  accepted,  when  practice  has  shown 
the  best  way,  the  hand  and  head  should  separate  somewhat,  the 
head  looking  enough  beyond,  or  ahead  of  the  hand  to  prop- 
erly plan  the  next  step  and  do  away  with  that  nervous  tension 
of  trying  to  plan  as  one  goes,  making  sudden  and  jerky  deci- 
sions ;  the  hand  becoming  more  or  less  motor  minded  from  prac- 
tice, prompted  constantly  by  the  sense  of  feeling,  and  ready  to 
accompany  and  prompt  the  head,  and  follow  as  it  leads. 

There  is  a  certain  rhythm  suggested  in  the  head  and  hand 

108 


TIME    AND    MOTION    STUDY 

motion  in  housework, — which  is  true  of  the  whole  body  for  that 
matter; — that  we  could  not  fail  but  note  in  the  various  tasks 
studied. 

For  instance ;  in  stringing  beans,  and  shilling  peas,  and  pre- 
paring vegetables  generally,  there  were  found  to  be  some  most 
interesting  motions  involved.  After  organizing  one's  surround- 
ings so  that  the  fewest  motions  are  needed  in  lifting,  preparing 
and  depositing  the  bean  and  the  waste,  and  doing  this  from  the 
most  comfortable  position,  the  process  of  stringing  the  bean 
itself  was  analyzed.  Picking  it  up  with  the  left  first  finger  and 
thumb  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  the  stem  straight  in  front  of 
one  and  in  contact  with  the  right  first  finger  and  thumb  for  dis- 
section, turning  it  at  the  end  of  the  string  for  the  other  side 
operation,  and  placing  it  in  a  pile  ready  for  cutting,  was  found 
to  be  a  unit,  taking  -£$  of  a  minute  in  time,  reduce  to  4 
simple  motions,  and  having  a  count  or  rhythm  of  common  time. 
The  shelling  of  peas,  on  the  other  hand,  could  be  done  to  a  count 
of  three-four  time.  Such  results  as  these  may  sound  perhaps 
affected  and  artificial  to  the  ordinary  reader.  The  musical 
preparation  of  vegetables  does  not  suggest  quite  the  same  per- 
formance as  that  of  the  ordinary  scullion,  but  if  one  stops  to 
think  of  the  good  old  Mammys  and  Marys  whom  one  remem- 
bers as  singing  at  their  work  peeling  potatoes  and  apples  and 
beating  the  cake  to  the  tunes  of  their  native  land,  we  cannot 
help  but  believe  that  better  work  was  done  in  that  way,  and  that 
the  therapeutic  value  of  music  as  lately  proven,  may  be  ex- 
tended to  industrial  uses  as  well.  But  whether  artificial  or  not, 
this  side  of  time  and  motion  study,  and  these  facts,  revealed 
themselves;  we  were  not  looking  for  them, — they  just  came  and 
we  noted  them. 

So  far  the  illustrations  given  have  been  single  units  of  work, 
and  the  units  of  those  units,  but  a  complete  operation  is  merely 
builded  from  the  process  and  the  time  taken  for  each  unit, 
which,  assembled  together  makes  the  standard  practice  for  each 
piece  of  work  plus  a  percentage  of  waste  that  will  be  found  to 
exist,  until  there  is  established  a  very  high  "scheme  of  perfec- 
tion." 

Getting  a  breakfast,  even  of  a  simple  sort,  is  an  example  of 

109 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

assembled  units.  The  part  that  requires  the  longest  time  for 
preparation  should  be  done  first,  naturally.  In  our  case  it  was 
the  boiling  of  the  water.  The  cereal  having  been  placed  in  the 
electric  cooker  the  night  before,  needed  only  to  be  carried  to 
the  Dining-Room.  The  fruit  also  had  but  to  be  taken  from 
the  ice-box  to  the  table-butler.  The  table  having  been  partly, 
or  entirely  laid  while  washing  the  dinner  dishes  the  night  be- 
fore. The  Dining-Room  at  the  Station  is  kept  at  an  even  tem- 
perature by  the  use  of  a  regitherm,  so  that  one  finds  it  warm 
at  any  hour  determined  upon  for  rising.  Therefore  the  proc- 
ess of  making  ready  the  breakfast  is  to  open  the  door,  press  the 
electric  button,  connect  the  toaster  and  hot  plate,  pass  to  but- 
ler's panty,  fill  tea-kettle,  place  on  flame,  start  "James"  grind- 
ing coffee  and  while  he  is  busy,  cut  bread  for  toast.  Fill  cream- 
pitcher  from  ice-box,  take  butter,  fruit,  cream  and  bread  to 
table,  return  to  "James,"  place  pulverized  coffee  in  a  chemical 
filter  paper,  drop  filter  in  glass  funnel,  and  place  funnel  in  ther- 
mos jug,  or  pitcher.  Take  kettle  of  water,  coffee  and  cereal 
to  table,  place  kettle  on  electric  hot  plate,  and  keep  at  boiling 
temperature  if  possible,  while  passing  it  through  the  ground 
coffee.  The  toaster  is  now  hot,  make  toast  as  it  is  needed.  After 
these  motions  were  carefully  standardized  and  classified,  it  was 
found  that  such  a  breakfast  required  less  than  six  minutes  for 
preparation,  making  ready  for  four  people.  This  of  course 
could  be  added  to  as  numbers  and  occasion  required.  Eggs  are 
often  served  from  the  table  stove,  and  griddle  cakes  at  times 
instead  of  toast. 

Such  an  illustration  is  but  suggestive  of  the  minimum-waste- 
law  under  which  to  plan  and  dispatch, — after  each  unit  has  been 
carefully  studied  and  each  part  organized — for  easiest  and 
quickest  results. 

Clearing  the  meals  away  and  washing  the  dishes  continues 
the  study.  Making  one  circuit  of  the  table,  placing  all  dishes 
and  silver  on  the  table-butler,  using  a  paper  napkin  for  the 
crumbs,  arriving  at  the  dumb-butler,  placing  all  upon  his  shelves 
and  rolling  him  to  the  dishwashing  machine,  there  to  handle  each 
thing  in  the  most  rapid  and  approved  way,  makes  for  practice 
and  for  standards  that  are  not  arrived  at  unfortunately  in  the 

110 


TIME    AND    MOTION    STUDY 

first  few  times,  but  after  many,  many  trials,  experiments,  time, 
testing,  and  comparative  records,  and  then  are  constant  subjects 
for  betterment. 

Dusting,  cleaning,  making  beds,  putting  a  room  in  order, 
cutting  and  arranging  flowers,  making  a  pan  of  muffins,  or  a 
pie,  and  in  fact  anything  and  everything  requiring  movement 
and  time  in  the  doing,  comes  under  this  heading  for  study  and 
practice. 

The  natural  question  of  the  housewife  being  of  course :  Does 
it  pay?  For  answer  to  this,  she  has  but  to  turn  to  the  results 
that  have  followed  the  work  and  the  books  of  such  men  as  Fred- 
erick Taylor,  Frank  Gilbreth,  Harrington  Emerson,  and  others. 
While  these  results  are  to  be  found  in  other  industries  than  the 
home,  it  should  take  but  a  small  amount  of  woman's  natural  intui- 
tion for  her  to  see  that  the  whole  subject  of  Time  and  Motion 
Study  not  only  does  pay  enormously  from  many  sides,  but  it  is 
practically  and  specially  adapted  to  her  kind  of  variables  in 
the  work  of  the  house,  particularly  as  it  develops  a  time  and  mo- 
tion sense  in  all  activity.  Making  the  studies  is  a  long  and 
difficult  process,  but  it  can  be  and  is,  a  most  interesting  one 
when  done  alone,  or  in  groups.  Unit  records  of  work  should 
be  useful  to  all  as  standards ;  the  combinations  for  the  different 
operations  varying  as  individual  desire  dictates.  Washing,  iron- 
ing, cooking,  sewing,  in  fact  every  department  of  the  home, 
proves  itself  equally  adaptable  to  this  form  of  study. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  opinion  of  the  writer  that  will  so 
effectively  take  that  mechanical  and  tiresome  routine  sense  out 
of  housework,  and  make  each  daily  act  a  new,  live,  interesting, 
cultural  and  creative  effort,  as  to  thoroughly  comprehend  the 
meaning  of  time  and  motion  study,  so  that  it  becomes  a 
constant  and  almost  automatic  practice,  engaging  the  thought, 
the  emotion  and  the  entire  body,  until  one  becomes  sensitively 
conscious  of  the  power  and  value  of  that  three-fold  motive  in 
movement,  Accomplishment,  Exhilaration,  Beauty.  The  first 
encouraging  skill  and  speed.  The  second  strength  and  endur- 
ance. The  third  charm  and  quality. 


Ill 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  REGENERATION   OF   THE  KITCHEN 

"The  mind  has  no  kitchen  to  do  its  dirty  work  in, 
while  the  parlor  remains  clean  '* 

Viewed  from  one  standpoint,  the  entire  home  is  a  Kitchen, 
for  the  reason  that  a  Kitchen,  as  we  term  it,  is  a  place  from 
which  and  in  which  to  furnish  food,  or  refreshment,  but  as  "man 
cannot  live  by  bread  alone,"  so  only  a  small  portion  of  his  re- 
freshment, not  more  than  one-fifth  of  what  he  requires,  enters 
into  his  make-up  through  the  sense  of  taste. 

While  at  first  thought  we  may  believe  that  this  part  of  the 
house  supplies  but  the  coarser  and  more  materialistic  sub- 
stance, and  can  therefore  well  be  left  to  chance,  or  anyone  who 
may  prepare  it,  we  very  soon  realize  that  the  control  of  the 
finer  and  most  desired  elements  in  life  so  rests  upon  the  inter- 
relation and  interpenetration  of  matter,  and  the  intelligent  use 
we  are  able  to  make  of  it,  that  the  only  happy  and  complete 
evolution  of  the  human  being  is  for  him  to  aspire  to  the  heights 
of  his  nature  by  the  method  of  carrying  the  better  part  of  him- 
self down  and  through  his  entire  existence,  and  all  that  goes 
to  make  him  what  he  is. 

While  it  is  well  to  separate  the  various  parts  of  a  subject  for 
the  process  of  study,  when  one  would  live,  one  must  be  keenly 
conscious  of  the  unity  of  life  and  how  intimately  one  organ 
affects  another.  To  understand  what  is  meant  by  the  regenera- 
tion of  the  Kitchen,  we  must  study  it  from  a  separate,  and 
from  an  inclusive  standpoint  in  the  home.  We  must  touch  upon 
its  historic  significance;  its  meaning  in  the  past,  and  its  place 
in  the  present.  We  must  view  it  from  the  angle  of  the  universal 
world  kitchen,  and  from  the  demands  for  small  and  particular 
needs.  We  must  understand  it  not  only  from  its  utilitarian  po- 
sition, but  equally  from  its  efficient,  its  literary,  its  aesthetic 
and  its  poetic  possibilities.  In  short  we  must  feel  the  meaning 

112 


THE    REGENERATION    OF    THE    KITCHEN 

of  the  modern  kitchen  everywhere,  as  one  felt  the  charm  of  the 
kitchen  of  old.  We  must  know  its  purpose,  even  though  we 
neither  see  it,  nor  live  in  it  in  the  familiar  fashion  of  our  fore- 
fathers. And  let  us  ask  what  was  the  unspeakable  charm  and 
pleasure  one  felt  in  the  kitchen  of  long  ago?  Was  it  not  a 
delightful  and  intimate  touch  that  one  had  with  every  side  of 
the  family  life?  That  close  administering  to  all  the  human 
needs  of  the  early  home  and  its  inmates,  a  family  hospitality, 
activity,  ease  and  contentment?  There  was  just  as  much  work 
and  quite  as  much  unpleasantness  in  dirt  and  anxiety,  but 
everybody  knew  that  he  must  do  his  share,  or  the  life  of  the 
whole  could  not  go  on,  and  each  one  became  so  skilled  in  his 
part  that  the  work  was  a  source  of  interest  to  all.  Warmth 
and  comfort  was  to  be  found  in  this  portion  of  the  house,  not 
because  the  cooking  went  on  there,  but  because  the  means  of 
providing  these  qualities  was  limited  and  necessity  forced  them 
to  be  valued,  just  as  necessity  to  meet  the  demands  of  our 
present  life  is  forcing  us  to  revalue  our  source  of  supply  and 
to  redetermine  our  relation  to  our  surroundings. 

The  Kitchen  of  long  ago  had  the  same  root  meaning  it  has 
to-day — "A  place  in  which  to  cook,  or  prepare  food," — "To  use 
sparingly,"  and  "To  add  relish  to."  And  yet  how  varied  has 
been  the  understanding  of  these  three  main  meanings. 

Cooking  is  done  in  order  that  food  may  be  better  assimilated, 
but  how  often  do  we  find  it  all  for  naught?  Unless  the  use  of 
food  in  the  body  be  thoroughly  comprehended,  the  amount  and 
quality  required,  as  well  as  the  combinations  needed,  the  cook's 
wages  and  labors  will  perchance  but  add  to  the  doctor's  bills 
and  to  the  family  discomfort. 

Again,  how  prone  we  are  to  consider  economy  an  end,  rather 
than  the  real  study  of  economics.  The  first  interpreted  as  the 
result  of  sparing  use,  and  the  doing  without.  The  second  being 
a  proper  method  of  management  that  makes  it  possible  to  ef- 
fectively utilize  everything  that  can  be  made  to  enrich  one's 
environment.  A  full  return  for  every  investment. 

"To  give  relish  to,"  is  perhaps  the  most  suggestive  of  the 
three  definitions,  inasmuch  as  no  food,  whether  it  be  for  the 
physical,  mental,  spiritual,  or  psychic  side  of  man  is  assimilated 

113 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

to  the  point  of  right  usefulness  unless  it  arouses  the  interest  of 
the  one  to  be  fed.  This  it  does  in  a  constructive  way  largely 
through  the  influence  of  flavor,  and  in  a  questionable  and  de- 
generating fashion  by  the  introduction  of  factors  that  but 
stimulate,  overseason,  and  cater  unhappily  to  the  appetite. 
We  relish  food  when  we  are  truly  hungry,  and  instinctively 
delight  in  its  nutritive  value,  and  not  when  it  comes  to  us  at 
the  wrong  time  and  overpowers,  as  it  were,  our  sense  of  desire. 
How  many  an  one  we  hear  tell  of  eating  his  "Three  square 
meals  a  day,"  whatever  that  means ;  simply  because  the  hour 
has  arrived  and  it  is  set  before  him.  A  theory  and  practice 
that  however  much  it  may  savor  of  habit  and  convenience,  hath 
no  foundation  in  nature. 

Reduced  to  its  last  analysis,  the  meaning  of  the  Kitchen  is 
the  cookstove,  and  of  the  cookstove  is  the  fire.  Here  truly 
begins  our  investigation  of  this  subject,  leading  we  hope  to  a 
suggestion  of  a  new  order  of  things  just  here. 

Fire  is  the  basis  of  civilization.  Its  power  and  its  control 
determines  man's  degree  of  progress.  The  common  kitchen 
stove,  when  pictured  as  the  pivot  around  which  a  people  re- 
volve and  live,  becomes  truly  an  instrument  of  international 
importance.  As  a  rule  we  find  it  the  first  article  to  be  placed 
in  a  house.  The  one  given  the  largest  daily  attention,  and 
surely  the  one  having  the  greatest  influence  over  both  the 
family  health  and  the  family  peace.  In  primitive  times  the 
great  logs  that  warmed  and  lighted  the  fire-place,  with  its 
splendid  draughts  airing  the  house,  made  the  watching  of  the 
fire  of  real  concern  to  the  whole  family,  but  gradually  it  be- 
came the  duty  of  one  person  to  "keep  up  the  fire,"  merely  for 
its  cooking  purposes ;  a  mechanical  draught  held  the  great 
outdoors  in  check,  thereby  doing  away  with  that  wonderful 
source  of  healthful  ventilation,  and  the  operation  became  a 
matter  of  putting  in  coal  and  taking  out  ashes,  with  all  the 
intermediate  worry  and  work  that  accompany  the  wondering 
of  "How  is  the  fire?",  and  "What  more  can  be  baked  while  the 
oven  is  hot?"  The  latter  leading  often  to  an  overabundant 
table,  and  an  overworked  woman.  The  former  making  it 
mentally  impossible  to  think  in  a  concentrated  or  worthy  way 

114 


THE    REGENERATION    OF    THE    KITCHEN 

upon  any  subject  unrelated  to  the  condition  of  the  kitchen 
stove.  So  that  while  it  was  an  invention  far  ahead  in  many 
ways  of  the  great  open  hearth,  it  carried  with  it  its  detrimental 
influence. 

When  our  work  began  at  the  Experiment  Station,  the  first 
factor  to  consider  was  logically  this  same  Kitchen  stove,  or  the 
source  of  usable  heat.  We  soon  found  through  practical  and 
comparative  tests,  that  of  all  the  uneconomic  systems  of  house- 
work, that  depending  upon  the  use  of  a  coal  range,  or  stove, 
stood  first.  Thus,  fuel  at  the  present  price  of  $6.50  a  ton, 
costs  a  day  for  the  average  four-cover  range,  or  stove,  21 
cents  in  a  well-managed  fire.  This  of  course  varies  with  the 
days  of  the  week,  but  our  tests  were  made  under  what  seemed 
the  most  perfect  average  family  conditions.  Add  to  this  an 
hour  wasted  in  time  and  muscle  at  keeping  the  fire,  the  addi- 
tional waste  in  the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  finished  food, 
much  of  which  escapes  not  only  to  the  kitchen  walls,  but  too 
often  to  every  corner  of  the  house,  carrying  with  it  not  only 
the  value  of  the  product,  but  the  odor  as  well,  for  "every  little 
odor  has  a  body  of  its  own,"  and  in  addition  the  time  required 
in  cleaning  and  removing  this  wasteful  effect;  the  dreadful 
and  unnecessary  heat  during  a  large  part  of  the  year;  the 
attention  needed  that  nothing  shall  be  ruined  in  the  process  of 
cooking,  and  above  all  the  effect  upon  the  woman  who  must, 
with  her  other  responsibilities  and  duties,  become  a  more  or 
less  overworked  stoker.  While  many  of  these  points  cannot 
well  be  summed  up  as  money,  the  imagination  of  no  one  can 
be  so  limited  as  not  to  be  able  to  realize  the  waste  and  extrava- 
gance of  which  the  average  kitchen  stove  is  the  cause,  and  that 
the  Home  Economic  Corner-Stone  of  the  Future  is  centered  in 
the  possibilities  of  the  principle  of  the  Fireless  Cooker,  or  the 
Conservation  of  Heat  and  Steam  applied  in  the  most  efficient 
way. 

Our  tests  in  the  fuel  of  Alcohol  proved  that  while  it  is  a 
little  more  expensive  than  oil,  or  gas,  it  has  the  added  virtue 
of  being  the  cleanest  and  readiest  of  flames,  a  steady  and  effi- 
cient heat  that  is  light  and  portable  in  form,  and  can  be  used 
with  success  and  satisfaction  where  no  other  fire  is  possible.  A 

115 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

home  may  be  well-lighted,  heated  and  practically  run  with  no 
other  medium  of  heat,  its  greatest  virtue  being  the  cheapness 
and  adaptability  of  the  utensils  needed. 

Gas  is  perhaps  the  sort  of  heat  that  serves  best  some  of  the 
purposes  of  every  home.  Until  electric  current  is  made  cheaper, 
and  until  we  can  turn  on  a  sufficient  quantity  to  boil  a  quart  of 
water  in  two  minutes,  instead  of  fifteen,  Gas  will  be  the  pre- 
ferred medium  for  short  time  cooking,  and  the  most  satisfactory 
in  the  heating  of  water,  of  fireless  cooker  plates,  and  in  the  in- 
cineration of  garbage,  which  requires  an  intense  heat  for  a 
short  time. 

But  with  the  entrance  of  Electricity  into  the  home,  the  pos- 
sibilities for  the  true  regeneration  of  housework  begins.  It 
may  cost  more  to  "touch  a  button,"  or  turn  a  switch  for  the 
moment,  but  in  the  long  run,  and  for  returns  given,  it  becomes 
the  most  economic  medium  of  the  four  heats  upon  which  to 
base  the  practical  workings  of  a  home.  With  its  various  at- 
tachments for  automatic  control,  there  need  be  no  waste  in 
current  when  not  required  for  use.  It  is  the  cleanest  and  most 
efficient  heat  and  light  known,  and  is  besides  capable  in  a  more 
or  less  perfect  way  of  performing  every  act  of  housework  re- 
quiring any  continuous  power,  from  the  beating  of  an  egg,  to 
the  scrubbing  of  the  floor.  The  use  of  such  power  we  find  the 
cheapest  form  of  the  current.  Its  translation  into  light  ranks 
next  in  expense.  And  as  heat  it  costs  most. 

In  actual  tests  repeated  many  times  at  the  Station,  we  proved 
that  three  vessels  of  vegetables,  containing  three  pints  each, 
(such  as  potatoes,  beets,  and  carrots)  could  be  perfectly  cooked 
with  no  waste  of  substance,  for  not  more  than  four  cents,  and 
with  no  tho&ght,  or  dirt,  further  than  that  of  setting  a  thermo- 
stat and  touching  a  switch.  Again,  a  roast  of  a  twenty-pound 
turkey  has  upon  several  occasions  cost  no  more  than  twelve 
cents  to  deliver  to  the  platter  browned  and  flavored  in  the  most 
approved  fashion,  retaining  for  the  serving  every  particle  of 
nutriment,  and  demanding  not  even  a  minute's  labor  in  the 
washing  of  the  pan.  That  electrically  cooked  food  has  a 
slightly  different  flavor  from  that  prepared  in  other  ways,  is 
true,  but  it  is  far  more  perfect,  and  infinitely  more  uniform.  If 

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THE    REGENERATION    OF    THE    KITCHEN 

it  were  practical  to  have  each  article  of  the  Menu  prepared 
in  the  most  approved  way,  then  would  the  home  be  equipped 
with  every  type  of  fire  that  has  been  in  use,  from  the  hot  stone 
hole  and  the  hickory  coals,  to  the  electric  chafing  dish  that  ap- 
pears as  if  cooking  by  magic,  no  sign  of  the  source  of  its  heat 
being  apparent  save  a  delicate  cord  which  enters  the  handle,  but 
this  is  not  to  be  encouraged,  for  the  reason  that  we  are  now 
prone  to  give  too  much  thought,  time  and  space,  to  the  Depart- 
ment of  Eating  for  the  Home's  best  health,  and  if  too  great  a 
variety  of  fires  had  to  be  tended,  it  would  surely  have  its  ill 
effects,  even  though  the  beans  and  the  chop  did  prove  a  trifle 
more  to  our  liking.  Hence  in  the  simplifying  of  this  work,  as 
with  the  other  departments  of  the  home,  our  aim  should  be 
to  cater  to  the  highest  standards,  rather  than  to  particular 
and  often  eccentric  taste.  Then  may  we  camp  in  the  woods 
and  enjoy  the  results  of  the  hot  stone,  just  as  occasionally 
we  might  eat  at  a  restaurant  where  the  red-hot  ashes  of  the 
wood,  or  charcoal,  will  give  up  its  charm  to  the  success  of  the 
chop. 

And  so  we  say  the  efficient  kitchen  may  be  equipped  with  a 
gas  flame  and  an  electric  wire,  whether  it  be  the  great  estab- 
lishment that  must  feed  many  lives,  or  the  tiny  home  built  per- 
haps about  one  room. 

In  a  charming  studio  in  New  York,  where  every  guest  (and 
they  are  many),  feels  it  both  a  privilege  and  a  joy  to  enter,  the 
Kitchen  is  a  part  of  the  Front  Hall,  both  measuring  in  floor 
space  not  more  than  5  feet  x  8  feet.  Here  one  moves  from 
the  entrance  door  of  wonderful  glass, — giving  forth  a  faint 
and  charming  tone  of  music  as  it  opens  to  each  who  touch  the 
quaint  and  exquisite  knocker  bearing  the  name  of  the  home, — to 
a  gorgeous  Oriental  rug  upon  a  parquet  background,  and  under 
a  wonderful  lamp  of  original  design,  deposits  his  cane  and  hat 
upon  a  spacious  old  carved  bit  of  furniture, — having  that  de- 
lightful expression  of  desire  to  do  its  part  in  the  real  hospitality 
of  the  place, — and  if  he  looks  about  him,  he  sees  nothing  in  the 
little  foyer  unsuited  to  the  environment  of  the  most  approved 
art  standards  in  hall  furnishing.  He  does  not  know  from 
sight,  or  odor,  that  just  behind  a  most  interesting  four-panel 

117 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

leaded  and  stained  glass  screen,  movable  upon  ball-bearing 
rollers,  apparently  placed  that  it  may  receive  the  light  of  a  large 
and  open  window  for  best  appreciation,  he  would  find,  if  he  be 
permitted  to  but  move  one  of  the  panels,  a  most  unusual  minia- 
ture laboratory.  A  small  hall  closet  built  for  the  use  of  rub- 
bers, brushes,  newspapers,  and  "what  not,"  has  been  converted 
into  a  food  workshop.  Here  is  placed  a  model  kitchen  sink,  with 
a  drop  coming  over  and  forming  a  table  when  needed,  but 
quickly  replaced  when  not  in  use.  Little  shelves  up  and  down 
give  ample  room  for  the  storing  of  material  and  utensils.  An 
approved  receptacle  for  garbage  takes  care  of  the  immediate 
necessities.  And  what  is  there  prepared  is  routed  to  the  right, 
with  but  the  moving  of  an  arm,  on  to  a  broad  and  ample  window- 
sill,  which  receives  both  the  article  ready  to  be  cooked,  and  the 
finished  product.  This  sill  one  finds  also  equipped  with  a  drop 
wing  that  can  be  put  to  service,  and  with  an  additional  storage 
place  underneath.  With  sufficient  curiosity  he  would  also  dis- 
cover upon  the  outside  of  the  window,  strongly  fastened  to  the 
side  of  the  house  and  easily  reached  by  raising  the  lower  sash,  a 
remarkable  ice-box  so  built  as  not  to  obstruct  the  window  in 
the  slightest,  and  as  it  is  not  upon  the  street,  no  objection  is 
noted.  But  the  most  startling  impression  is  made  when  this 
favored  guest  sees  for  the  first  time  the  Kitchen  stove  from 
which  he  knows  as  many  as  twenty-six  discriminating  men  and 
women  are  being  served  in  the  Studio,  with  a  most  delicious 
dinner  of  six  courses,  and  he  stands  aghast  when  he  realizes 
that  the  two-hole  gas  stove,  with  its  small  under  flame,  placed 
upon  the  ledge  of  a  door  which  leads  to  the  back  Hall  of  the 
Apartment,  with  merely  a  hole  cut  through  like  a  box-office — 
properly  ventilated  and  protected  from  the  flame, — was  the  only 
fire  used  in  the  cooking. 

Surely  as  an  example  of  a  particular  Kitchen,  this  little 
Studio  space  of  about  six  linear  feet,  practically  at  the  front 
door,  combining  all  the  requirements  of  a  standard  kitchen,  is 
prophetic.  What  may  it  mean?  Or  rather  what  may  it  not 
mean?  Does  such  a  picture,  and  it  is  true  to  life,  not  sug- 
gest that  one's  whole  attitude  toward  the  kitchen  can  be 
changed  from  the  usual  utilitarian  idea  only,  to  the  embracing 

118 


THE    REGENERATION    OF    THE    KITCHEN 

of  the  useful  with  the  beautiful?  For  nothing  is  wholly  useful 
until  it  includes  beauty,  nor  beautiful  unless  useful. 

The  thought  in  relation  to  the  modern  kitchen  that  we  of 
the  Experiment  Station  tried  to  arouse,  was  founded  upon  two 
illustrations.  That  of  the  Model  Pullman  Car  Kitchen,  where 
space  is  economized,  and  the  routing  element  of  prime  impor- 
tance. That  of  the  particular  Studio,  where  life  may  be  so  full, 
free,  and  varied,  where  beauty  and  feeling  reign  supreme,  and 
where  no  task  is  undignified  if  performed  within  the  legitimate 
scope  of  the  art  and  creative  instinct.  A  portion  of  the  studio 
set  apart  as  a  place  from  which  to  feed  the  "inner  man"  may  be 
perfectly  managed,  to  the  end  that  such  a  "Kitchen"  provides 
not  only  bread  with  butter  as  a  relish,  but  a  food  that  will  sat- 
isfy the  higher  man-senses  as  well. 

This  leads  us  to  consider  for  a  moment  the  proper  environ- 
ment for  a  Kitchen.  Its  lines,  the  forms  in  use,  which  should 
be  classic  and  fine  in  design  and  the  color,  or  tones  of  its  make- 
up. 

At  the  Experiment  Station  were  two  Kitchens  for  inspection, 
or  more  properly  three,  for  the  Butler's  Pantry  had  a  Kitchen- 
ette distinction.  In  the  one  known  as  the  Electric  Kitchen,  our 
plan  was  to  interpret  a  universal  kitchen  motive  in  coloring. 
We  tried,  with  what  seemed  charming  success,  to  suggest  the 
light  of  the  sun  in  the  carefully  blended  yellow  tones  of  the 
walls  and  draperies,  the  Sun  being  the  great  cook-stove,  or 
fire  of  Nature  by  which  our  food  is  first  prepared.  It  is  said 
that  draperies,  or  curtains,  have  no  place  in  a  Kitchen,  but  if 
a  curtain  is  found  to  be  useful  at  any  window,  surely  it  has  its 
part  to  play  in  softening  the  light  and  shading  the  glare  in 
this  room  as  well,  letting  the  worker  catch  a  glimpse  of  playful 
color  as  she  glances  about.  The  selection  of  material  and  de- 
sign being  the  important  part,  the  curtains  here  were  of  a  scrim 
as  easily  cleansed  as  a  towel,  and  with  an  interesting  stencil 
study  suitable  as  suggesting  the  uses  of  fire  and  light ;  grace- 
ful torches  illuminated  in  golden  tones,  formed  a  border  of 
decoration.  Crowning  this  room  was  a  band  of  that  choicest 
of  all  our  native  Flowers,  the  Laurel,  designed  so  as  to  form  a 
most  attractive  frieze,  symbolizing  the  esteem  in  which  Kitchen 

119 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

operations  should  be  held.  All  the  fixtures  of  the  room  one 
could  see  at  a  glance  had  been  given  careful  thought  and  at- 
tention as  to  form  and  use,  a  point  too  frequently  neglected. 
Every  part  was  in  proportion  to  the  whole.  Many  really  beau- 
tiful curves  and  graceful  lines,  as  well  as  carefully  chosen  and 
properly  placed  utensils  made  the  room  as  fitting  a  setting  as 
might  be  suggested  for  what  is  known  as  the  "working  part  of 
the  house."  The  old  water  jug  and  copper  charm  brought 
back  into  use  from  the  drawing-room.  One  did  not  feel  that 
the  window  seats,  with  their  cushions  and  flowers,  the  wall  cab- 
inets, or  the  creamy  dull  enamel  of  the  paint,  were  in  any  sense 
inappropriate  in  this  elaborately  wired  and  mechanically 
equipped  department. 

The  other  kitchen  was  more  personal  in  motive.  We  had 
talked  much  of  the  conservation  of  heat  and  steam  as  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  cooking,  and  again  these  same  artists  who 
so  successfully  helped  in  the  carrying  out  of  the  idea  in  the 
Electric  Kitchen,  were  equally  happy  in  the  interpretation  here. 
The  walls  were  painted  in  the  same  dull  finish ;  a  most  delight- 
ful shade  of  pale  gray  blended  from  floor  to  ceiling,  as  to  sug- 
gest the  faintest  of  smoke  and  steam.  The  woodwork,  a  dully 
finished  white  enamel,  was  cut  in  at  every  small  ledge  with  black, 
as  a  utilitarian  precaution,  as  well  as  to  give  character  to  the 
whole.  The  pearl-colored  scrim  curtains,  the  frieze  and  the  wall 
panels  were  traced  with  a  stencil  design  suggesting  fire  and 
iron,  and  the  gracefully  and  well  posed  figures  of  two  fascinat- 
ing cooks  turning  a  goose  over  an  old  iron  "spit,"  carried  out 
still  further  the  wall  impression  and  charm. 

As  long  as  we  are  so  limited  by  really  ugly  Kitchen  fixtures 
from  which  to  choose,  the  opportunities  for  aesthetic  combina- 
tions must  be  made  and  jealously  guarded  by  the  individual,  but 
there  has  been  considerable  progress  in  the  past  few  years. 
Since  the  time  of  the  opening  of  the  Station,  for  instance,  when 
it  was  almost  impossible  to  find  an  architect,  or  decorator  in 
New  York,  or  in  America  who  had  any  higher  idea  of  beauty 
for  the  Kitchen  than  a  purely  sanitary  one,  a  place  upon  which 
one  could  turn  a  hose.  While  cleanliness  is  a  virtue ;  the  proper 
standard  of  beauty  should  include  it.  You  may  imagine  our 

120 


THE    REGENERATION    OF    THE    KITCHEN 

delight  when  we  found  two  able  and  advanced  artists  who  re- 
sponded to  the  first  call  for  help,  and  who  have  since  made  a 
particularly  careful  and  enthusiastic  study  of  this  part  of  the 
house,  believing  it  just  as  worthy  the  artist's  attention  as  the 
consideration  of  the  atmosphere  of  any  other  room  in  the  home. 
Sometimes  the  writer  questions  as  to  whether  the  kitchen,  as 
we  know  it,  will  ever  be  regenerated?  .  Possessed  of  the  old 
charm  of  the  original  sort?  Or  whether  it  will  not  disappear 
entirely,  be  eliminated  from  the  plan  of  the  house,  as  it  becomes 
more  personal.  But  this  much  is  certain:  as  long  as  life  en- 
dures, man  will  have  food,  and  he  will  make  for  himself  a  home. 
There  can  be  no  home  without  the  element  of  heat,  or  fire.  The 
serving  of  food  is  the  main  purpose  of  this  domestic  unit,  and 
"to  cook"  is  the  origin  of  the  word  Kitchen.  But  inasmuch  as 
we  can  foresee  the  time  when  this  function  shall  be  determined  a 
fine  art,  when  the  equipment  necessary  to  feed  a  family  shall  be 
beautiful  in  form  and  portable  in  simplicity,  when  the  odors 
of  fat  and  steam  shall  have  vanished  and  the  cook's  apron  shall 
have  become  a  forgotten  weapon,  then  shall  we  be  able  to 
"serve"  from  any  delightful  spot,  or  corner,  the  atmosphere 
of  which  shall  permeate  the  home  in  its  life-giving  essence. 
Whether  such  a  room  be  set  apart,  or  not,  the  meaning  of  the 
Kitchen  shall  be  charmingly  felt  throughout  the  entire  house. 


121 


CHAPTER    XIII 

THE    EFFICIENT    LAUNDRY 

"Cleanliness  of  body  was  ever  esteemed  to 
proceed  from  a  due  reverence  to  God" 

"Cleanliness  is  indeed  next  to  Godliness" 

The  efficient  laundry  is  the  laundry  that  gets  the  best  results 
with  the  least  waste  in  time,  strength,  fabric,  water,  soap,  etc. 
The  standard  being  plenty  of  clean,  fresh  clothing  ever  ready 
and  routed  through  the  house  to  its  proper  place  at  the  least 
cost  in  human  effort  and  money. 

Washing  is  a  necessity  for  the  sake  of  health.  The  study 
of  hygiene  cannot  fail  to  impress  one  with  the  fact  that  the 
skin  requires  the  utmost  care  in  the  performance  of  its  most 
important  function, — the  elimination  of  waste  from  the  body. 
When  we  consider  that  from  25  to  40  ounces  of  material  passes 
out  daily  through  the  millions  of  tiny  openings,  nicely  arranged 
over  the  entire  human  being,  it  becomes  a  grave  matter  for 
adjustment  to  see  to  it  that  these  gases  and  small  particles 
are  not  impeded  in  their  passage.  While  there  is  a  question  as 
to  the  dangers  of  over-much  immersion  in  artificially  confined 
water,  there  has  never  been  a  suggestion,  as  far  as  the  writer 
knows,  of  the  unhealthiness  of  a  too  frequent  change  of  gar- 
ments. In  fact,  this  sort  of  cleanliness  is  the  strongest  aid  to 
good  health,  inasmuch  as  the  skin  is  made  more  active  by 
the  influence  of  fresh  clothing  and  the  manner  in  which  it 
absorbs  the  impurities  thrown  off  by  the  pores.  This  princi- 
ple of  course  extending  to  the  use  of  sheets,  towels,  pillow  cases, 
etc.  Even  the  "feel"  and  influence  of  clean  linen  about  the 
house  has  a  kind  of  reflex  action  stimulating  to  greater  activ- 
ity our  "sense"  of  cleanliness.  Hence  from  the  standpoint  of 
human  efficiency  and  the  resistance  to  disease,  washing  becomes 
a  necessity.  Ironing,  on  the  other  hand,  is  more  or  less  of  a 
luxury, — demanding  time,  strength  and  skill  in  proportion  to 

122 


THE    EFFICIENT    LAUNDRY 

the  nature  of  the  fabric  used,  and  the  design  and  importance 
of  the  garment.  By  the  latter  we  mean  whether  the  article  has 
sufficient  value  in  its  relation  to  the  home  to  warrant  its  cost. 
For  example:  why  do  housekeepers  so  generally  believe  that 
table-cloths  are  a  necessity  ?  When  the  most  exquisite  luncheons, 
suppers,  teas,  and  even  breakfasts  are  laid  without  them?  There 
seems  to  be  but  one  excuse  for  the  use  of  white  table-cloths, 
and  that  is,  custom  or  tradition  founded  upon  the  necessity  of 
covering  up,  or  protecting  the  table  and  of  assuring  a  clean 
surface  from  which  to  eat.  As  far  as  covering  up  the  table  is 
concerned,  a  new  top  occasionally  would  cost  less  in  the  average 
home  than  the  labor  and  money  needed  for  the  cloths  of  a  year 
even,  and  the  protecting  has  already  been  so  well  arranged  for 
the  other  meals  that  but  little  more  thought  and  asbestos  would 
be  needed  to  guarantee  safety  at  dinner.  The  clean  and  attrac- 
tive surface  from  which  to  eat  becomes  then  the  vital  issue. 
How  can  this  standard  be  maintained  at  less  cost  than  the  pur- 
chase price  of  linen  covers  and  their  upkeep? 

At  the  Experiment  Station  we  estimated  that  to  assure  good 
conditions,  at  least  two  table-cloths  a  week  were  required.  These 
could  rarely  be  purchased  for  less  than  $7.50  apiece,  and  if  used 
constantly  would  last  hardly  more  than  a  year.  The  labor  in 
spreading  and  folding  them  three  times  a  day,  and  in  keeping 
them  spotless  amounted  in  low  figures  to  $20.80.  A  total  in  the 
year  of  $35.00  for  only  a  fairly  attractive  cover,  as  against 
doilies,  or  small  coverings,  which  when  properly  selected  last 
longer,  cost  less,  and  require  much  less  labor  of  not  a  fatiguing 
sort. 

Table-napkins  were  also  considered  from  an  efficient  stand- 
point; a  linen-  one  per  person  costing  in  the  course  of  a  year, 
if  changed  once  a  day,  $6.20,  besides  the  care  and  anxiety  of 
keeping  them  in  order.  As  against  paper  ones,  which  can  be 
purchased  in  large  size  (Dennison's  paper  towels  make  excel- 
lent napkins)  costing  per  person  per  year,  all  of  93  cents,  and 
changed  three  times  a  day  at  a  cost  of  $2.76  per  year.  These 
figures  are  worth  dwelling  upon  for  a  moment  in  order  to  deter- 
mine whether  in  one's  standard,  or  ideal  of  the  home,  we  are 
really  getting  what  we  pay  for  in  each  department.  Towels 

123 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

and  rags  in  at  least  three-quarters  of  the  cases  in  which  they 
./  are  used,  are  more  efficient  when  made  of  paper,  and  require 
£v"  no  washing. 

Again  let  us  mention  a  certain  "combination"  or  undergar- 
ment that  has  been  quite  generally  worn  until  lately.  This  re- 
quired in  time  and  motion  study  but  a  very  few  minutes  to  wash, 
but  fully  half  an  hour  to  iron,  thus  making  the  cost  in  labor  per 
year  for  the  wearing  of  a  simple  ruffled  garment  $18.30.  The 
initial  cost  of  $3.50  each,  bringing  a  total  of  $28.80.  An 
amount  that  would  make  the  woman  with  a  carefully  made 
budget  conclude  she  might  with  economy  revel  in  silk  combina- 
tions at  $6.00  apiece,  that  would  require  no  ironing  and  but 
minimum  effort  in  washing.  The  first  idea  then  in  the  effi- 
cient home  laundry  is  to  cut  down  the  wash,  not  by  doing  with- 
out clean  clothes,  but  by  the  substitution  of  paper  where  pos- 
sible and  by  using  only  such  fabrics  and  designs  as  require 
the  least  effort  in  cleansing,  little  or  no  ironing,  or  cut  in  such  a 
way  as  to  be  practical  for  the  use  of  a  mangle,  no  starch,  and 
no  materials  that  require  close,  careful  and  long  time  attention. 
The  washing  estimated,  planned  and  determined  upon,  the  dis- 
patching of  it  is  of  next  consideration.  This  means  standard- 
ized conditions  and  standardized  operations.  Given  plenty  of 
fresh  air,  water,  soap  and  sunshine,  the  process  of  washing 
becomes  a  more  or  less  mechanical  one,  the  object  being  to  get 
the  water  through  the  texture  of  the  material  in  such  a  way  as 
to  carry  the  soil  with  it. 

The  rubbing  and  pounding  with  the  hands,  and  such  crude 
instruments  as  stones  and  the  washboard,  have  made  it  quite 
impractical  to  consider  the  long  time  application  of  water  in 
proper  motion  at  boiling  temperature.  The  modern  machine, 
however,  shuts  the  clothes  in  a  compartment,  the  hotter  the  bet- 
ter, where  an  emulsion  of  soap  and  soft  water  with  live  steam 
plays  upon  the  garments  in  such  a  way  as  to  loosen  and  rid 
them  of  all  soil  in  the  quickest  and  most  easily  dispatched  way. 
The  machine  we  found  to  be  most  effective  at  the  Station,  is  built 
upon  the  oscillating  principle  in  such  a  way  as  to  squeeze  the 
wash  in  the  angle  and  corners  of  the  copper  kettle  at  each  turn. 

Perhaps  the  simplest  way  to  describe  this  laundry  is  to  step 

124 


THE    EFFICIENT    LAUNDRY 

into  it,  in  words,  and  after  looking  about  for  a  moment,  actually 
do  a  week's  washing. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  not  in  the  Basement  where  poor  air, 
poor  light  and  poor  drainage  are  usual,  but  on  the  ground 
floor  just  off  a  pleasant  porch,  covered  with  vines  and  over- 
looking the  garden.  Large  ample  windows  shaded  with  white 
scrim  curtains  stencilled  with  a  border  of  water  plants  in  pale 
Blue,  give  plenty  of  light  and  air  on  all  sides.  The  woodwork 
is  white  dull  enamel  stencilled  with  tiny  water  jugs,  and  the 
walls  are  a  wonderful  tone  of  atmosphere,  blue  in  three  shades 
from  surbase  and  side  wall  to  ceiling,  stencilled  in  the  panels  with 
graceful  classic  figures  of  women  draped  in  blue  and  white  and 
washing  with  long-handled  bells  in  quaint  and  curious  old  ket- 
tles. On  the  floor  is  a  pale-blue  velvet  rug,  which  is  rolled 
back  when  the  machine  is  running,  although  the  tub  has  never 
been  known  to  spatter,  or  spill,  if  not  overloaded.  An  old- 
fashioned  combination  laundry  seat  and  table,  finished  in  white 
and  stencilled  in  blue,  stands  in  the  ironing  end  of  the  room, 
together  with  an  adjustable  skirt  and  shirt  board  that  locks 
up  against  the  wall  out  of  the  way,  and  comes  down  at  the 
touch  of  a  button  to  the  height  desired  for  sitting  comfortably 
at  one's  work.  An  adjustable  chair  arranged  to  fit  this  board, 
and  both  finished  in  the  same  white  with  the  little  stencilled 
border  of  blue  water  jugs,  makes  a  picturesque  furnishing 
against  a  background  of  white  and  blue  bannisters.  Just  under 
the  stairway  is  a  cupboard  big  enough  to  store  the  sleeve  board, 
clothes  baskets,  soap,  etc.  The  electric  irons  being  pocketed 
in  the  skirt-board,  come  into  place  as  it  descends,  ready  for 
use  with  the  turn  of  a  button. 

At  the  other  end  of  the  room  are  three  stationary  tubs  placed 
at  the  right  height  and  also  finished  in  white  with  the  border 
of  pale-blue  water  jugs,  and  a  little  white  cupboard  on  either 
side  giving  a  sort  of  drain  board  at  each  end  of  the  tubs.  In 
one  corner  is  to  be  found  a  sort  of  laboratory  cupboard  with 
glass  front  through  which  can  be  seen  a  variety  of  glass  con- 
tainers labelled:  "Ammonia,"  "Bluing,"  "Borax,"  "Alcohol," 
"Muriatic  Acid,"  "Oxalic  Acid,"  "Common  Salt,"  and  all  the 
other  aids  for  the  removal  of  stains,  and  ease  in  washing.  In 

125 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

front  of  the  tubs  stands  the  electric  washing  machine  and  just 
between  the  washing  and  ironing  sides  of  the  room  is  a  fasci- 
nating little  table  with  small  drop  shelves,  all  decorated  in  the 
same  blue  and  white,  and  holding  a  24-inch  gas  mangle  run  by 
an  electric  motor. 

With  this  much  in  the  way  of  environment  and  atmosphere, 
let  us  proceed  to  accomplish  an  old-time  day's  work  in  about  two 
hours,  and  the  whole  week's  laundry  of  seventy  pieces  (barring 
the  sheets  and  spreads  which  have  gone  to  the  public  wash)  in 
four  hours. 

First,  boil  the  water.  In  this  case  it  is  done  with  a  gas 
burner  under  the  metal  tub,  the  water  having  been  put  in  with 
a  hose  connection  from  the  hot-water  faucet  of  the  stationary 
tub  near. 

Not  having  this,  we  would  advise  installing  a  small  tank 
over  the  tubs,  with  gas  burner  under,  so  as  to  have  plenty  of 
boiling  water,  that  does  not  have  to  be  carried.  Soften  the 
water  with  a  little  ammonia,  or  lime  water,  and  have  melting 
some  best  quality  soap  chips.  Poor  soap  destroys  the  clothes 
and  makes  them  yellow.  Add  about  a  pound  of  chips  to  a  tub 
of  water.  While  the  water  is  boiling,  or  before,  sort  the  clothes, 
take  out  any  stains,  and  soak  any  that  are  particularly  soiled. 
When  all  is  ready,  fill  the  electric  tub  to  its  prescribed  capacity, 
follow  the  mechanical  directions,  and  start  the  motor.  Either 
run  hot  water  through  the  clothes  that  have  been  soaked,  or  put 
them  through  the  wringer  so  as  not  to  lower  the  temperature  of 
the  suds.  Run  the  machine,  preferably  half  an  hour, — and 
while  this  is  being  done,  the  stockings  may  be  washed  in  a 
small  hand  machine,  or  any  particular  pieces  of  flannel,  or 
silk,  not  suitable  in  the  boiling  hot  machine.  The  line  may  be 
put  in  order,  or  other  things  may  be  attended  to.  Before  tak- 
ing the  clothes  out,  run  the  water  in  the  stationary  tubs  for 
rinsing,  stop  the  machine,  and  lift  each  piece  from  the  hot 
water  with  a  small  wooden  fork,  or  pair  of  tongs,  start  the 
wringer  and  feed  rapidly  and  carefully  until  the  tub  is  empty. 
Rinse  the  clothes  with  a  long-handled  bell,  and  keep  the  hands 
out  of  the  water  as  much  as  possible.  While  the  rinsing  is 
going  on,  another  tub  full  may  be  started,  if  the  water  is  not 

126 


THE    EFFICIENT    LAUNDRY 

too  dirty,  by  merely  adding  more  liquid  soap.  A  wringer  be- 
tween the  tubs,  with  a  motor  attached,  makes  it  easy  to  pass 
the  pieces  from  one  tub  to  another.  Washing  in  boiling  water, 
three  good  rinsings,  and  plenty  of  fresh  air  and  sunshine, 
make  boiling  and  bluing  unnecessary.  As  it  is  easier  to  wash 
garments  in  this  way  than  to  iron  them  when  starched,  there 
seems  to  be  no  particular  virtue  in  starch.  There  never  was 
any,  except  the  surface  gloss,  the  fashion  of  stiffness,  and  the 
protection  from  too  easily  soiling. 

The  two  hours  is  nearly  up,  and  all  is  ready  to  be  hung  out 
to  dry.  While  the  drying  is  going  on,  empty  the  tubs  and 
replace  everything  in  order;  rest  a  bit,  or  have  luncheon,  and 
then  bring  in  all  the  pieces  that  can  be  ironed  in  the  mangle, 
and  as  many  others  as  are  in  a  fit  state  of  dampness  to  iron. 
Turn  the  mangling  table  into  place,  light  the  gas,  put  up  the 
leaves,  let  down  the  clothes  horse,  shake  out,  fold,  or  straighten 
the  pieces,  start  the  motor  and  begin  to  iron  them.  With  a 
little  care  and  practice,  the  mangle  will  really  do  most  excellent 
work.  In  the  course  of  an  hour  all  the  flat  pieces  will  be  folded 
away  and  the  real  ironing  may  begin.  Let  down  the  skirt- 
board,  place  the  chair  in  a  comfortable  position,  connect  the 
iron,  and  in  an  hour  or  two  all  should  be  out  of  the  way,  ready, 
after  a  little  airing,  to  route  into  place. 

In  comparison  with  the  old  way  of  hand  rubbing,  wringing* 
bluing,  boiling,  starching,  sprinkling  and  ironing,  modern 
methods  as  effected  by  machinery,  make  home  laundering  a  sim- 
ple and  non-fatiguing  operation.  The  time  is  cut  to  less  than  a 
third,  and  no  part  of  the  work  is  in  any  sense  hard  labor.  Al- 
though it  is  true  there  seems  no  particular  reason  why  it  should 
remain  in  the  home,  save  for  the  fact  that  public  laundries  are 
not  yet  efficient  in  protecting  the  fabric,  or  adjusting  the  price 
of  other  things  in  proportion  to  sheets,  shirts  and  towels.  Co- 
operative laundries  in  each  community  would  be  an  immense  help 
if  properly  run  by  a  scientific  manager  and  guarded  by  effective 
regulations.  A  separate  washing  machine  in  each  home,  of  ex- 
pensive design,  seems  like  a  waste,  when  in  most  cases  it  is  used 
but  an  hour  or  two  a  week.  On  the  other  hand,  an  electric  ma- 
chine costing  a  hundred  dollars  pays  for  itself  in  less  than  a 

127 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

year,  where  the  family  has  been  in  the  habit  of  having  a  washer- 
woman at  the  tubs  for  one  or  more  days  a  week. 

Cleanliness  is  a  virtue  and  a  necessity,  but  cleanliness  at  the 
expanse  of  anyone's  youth,  health  and  happiness,  is  a  ques- 
tionable virtue,  particularly  when  it  is  no  longer  essential  that 
such  a  standard  of  drudgery  shall  be  a  part  of  the  household. 

We  owe  it  to  ourselves,  our  companions,  and  our  Creator, 
to  make  all  labor  efficient  and  all  work,  a  joy.  "Cleanliness  shall 
then  indeed  be  next  to  Godliness,"  for  the  effort  of  keeping  clean 
will  be  a  pleasure  as  well  as  health-giving  to  everybody  con- 
cerned. 


128 


CHAPTER  XIV 


POOD,  ITS  PREPARATION  AND  VALUE 

"And  homeless  near  a  thousand  homes  I  stood 
and  near  a  thousand  tables  pined  and  wanted  food" 

In  the  midst  of  the  personal  prejudices  of  the  food-faddist, 
the  academic  complexities  of  the  food  chemist,  and  the  avail- 
able products  of  the  food  manufacturer,  the  modern  housewife 
finds  it  no  easy  task  to  intelligently  provide  from  day  to  day 
a  uniform  quality  of  proper  nourishment  in  the  simplest  and 
most  attractive  form  that  will  adequately  meet  the  varied  de- 
mands of  those  who  differ  as  to  age,  size,  temperament  and 
occupation.  The  kind  of  food  that  will  insure  the  greatest  re- 
sistance against  disease,  and  encourage  the  most  efficient  and 
effective  action  of  mind  and  body.  For  it  cannot  be  denied  in 
the  face  of  statistics  and  experience  that  modern  life  is  unnatu- 
rally and  unnecessarily  burdened  with  physical  and  mental  dis- 
abilities, the  natural  result  of  a  too  rapid  civilization  perhaps, 
but  more  directly  the  inevitable  outcome  of  wrong  standards  of 
living,  a  disorganized  base  of  control,  and  artificialities  gener- 
ally, both  social  and  individual. 

Of  necessity  the  cry  for  a  balance  must  be  "back  to  nature," 
but  just  what  does  that  phrase  mean?  It  assuredly  need  not 
mean  the  usual  picture  of  the  "simple  life"  in  all  its  crude 
unattractiveness  and  discomfort;  that  form  of  getting  back 
to  the  roots  and  the  rocks  in  actual  reality,  but  rather  a  modern 
incorporating  of  these  solid  primitive  principles  into  harmonious 
and  scientific  understanding  and  use;  following  life's  processes 
through  nature's  way  of  working  and  expressing  and  adding 
thereto  all  that  man  can  include  of  beauty,  convenience,  and 
luxury.  Let  us  not  try  to  go  "back  to  the  soil"  in  the  old  way, 
but  let  us  also  refuse  to  attempt  to  go  back,  holding  solely  to  the 
laboratory  route;  where  the  simple  sign-posts  of  nature  have 
been  substituted  rather  than  crowned  and  beautified.  A  labora- 

129 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

tory  civilization  that  would  conquer  nature  is  incredible  to  the 
soul  of  woman.  Life  is  her  first  concern,  and  the  essence  of 
life  has  never  yet,  nor  can  it  ever  come  out  of  a  laboratory. 
The  very  breath  of  the  Creator,  held  in  spirit,  and  delivered 
from  moment  to  moment  as  need  and  condition  determine,  will 
ever  evade  the  most  ambitious  grip  of  the  scientific  searcher. 

The  function  of  woman  is  to  feed  and  nourish  the  race.  This 
function  she  can  perform  but  improperly  unless  the  food  sup- 
ply is  in  some  way  under  her  control.  We  cannot  return  to 
the  period  when  practically  all  the  food  of  a  family  was  raised 
within  the  radius  of  a  square  mile  or  two,  nor  would  we  sacri- 
fice such  progressive  standards  of  sanitation,  hygiene  and  distri- 
bution as  have  resulted  from  the  evolution  of  the  big  food  indus- 
tries. These  things  are  valuable.  There  is  besides  no  particular 
reason  why  every  home  should  forever  remain  a  miniature  food 
factory  for  "fifty-seven"  or  more  varieties,  but  there  is  great  rea- 
son for  each  home-maker  in  the  land  to  consider  intelligently  and 
intimately  the  kind  of  food  substance  that  enters  into  the  life  or 
death  of  the  family  under  her  care,  and  know  well  what  she  is 
serving,  why  she  is  serving  it,  and  how  it  should  be  served. 
Three  points  of  view  in  which  there  is  to  be  found  scarcely  a 
woman  living  who  is  thoroughly  satisfied  as  to  her  knowledge, 
unless  she  possesses  little  and  wants  less. 

Let  us  ask  at  the  outset,  as  we  did  in  the  work  of  the  Experi- 
ment Station :  What  is  the  matter  with  our  food  supply  ?  Why 
is  it  not  maintaining  a  higher  standard  of  human  strength? 
How  best  can  a  family  be  fed  to  insure  a  maximum  degree  of 
health  and  prosperity  at  minimum  expenditure  of  time,  strength 
and  material?  Three  simple  questions  for  each  of  which,  every 
woman  should  strive  to  find  the  answer  even  though  it  never  be 
final  and  satisfying. 

Firstly,  we  are  suffering  from  an  over-refined  class  of  foods 
known  as  denatured  products,  that  might  more  properly  perhaps 
be  called  un-natured,  a  class  of  staple  articles  from  which  much, 
if  not  all,  of  the  life  substance  has  been  subtracted,  contami- 
nated, or  sterilized,  including  all  patent  process  flours,  meal, 
sugar,  rice,  etc. 

Secondly,  we  are  in  danger  from  what  is  known  as  adulter- 

130 


FOOD,  ITS  PREPARATION  AND  VALUE 

ated  and  misbranded  foods.  A  class  into  which  has  been  intro- 
duced foreign  substance  synthetically  compounded  for  the  pur- 
pose of  preserving,  altering  the  consistency,  or  changing  the 
appearance.  This  type  of  so-called  food  includes  all  chemi- 
cally manufactured  flavorings,  much  of  the  "canned  stuff,"  all 
"bleached"  and  "dyed"  products,  a  great  deal  of  the  meat  sup- 
ply, a  dangerous  quantity  of  the  soda-water  fountain  and  Bar 
compounds,  and  all  foods  that  have  in  any  way  been  arrested  in 
their  natural  process  of  fermentation  by  the  introduction  of  a 
form  of  benzoate  of  soda,  formaldehyde,  or  any  such  preserva- 
tive chemical. 

Thirdly,  our  lives  are  made  uncertain  from  moment  to  mo- 
ment by  the  unsanitary  condition  of  food.  This  does  not  mean 
"wholesome  dirt,"  the  soil  of  the  earth  exposed  to  pure  air  and 
sunshine,  but  rather  the  germs,  poisons,  microbes,  and  the  in- 
sects, and  excreta  of  the  unclean.  The  foul  state  of  food  kept 
too  long,  placed  in  unsanitary  containers,  or  exposed  to  the  gases 
and  influence  of  antagonistic  substances. 

There  are  but  two  sources  from  which  life  in  normal  condi- 
tion is  maintained — air  and  food — and  as  the  first  is  an  impor- 
tant form  of  food,  we  may  say  there  is  but  the  one  great  source, 
that  of  food  alone,  and  as  such  it  is  not  only  of  fundamental  and 
material  importance,  but  capable  of  study  through  analysis 
and  expression  that  centers  and  expands  in  spirit  itself. 

What  should  one  eat  to  be  strong,  for  no  man  liveth  who 
does  not  wish  for  strength  of  some  sort, — "a  strength  that  con- 
quers muscle."  As  we  do  not  live  upon  what  we  eat,  but  upon 
what  we  digest,  or  assimilate,  it  is  the  process  of  digestion  that 
becomes  of  first  importance.  A  very  simple  and  appropriate 
lesson  in  dietetics  came  to  the  Experiment  Station  during  its 
formation,  centered  in  what  was  called  Brown  Rice,  a  name 
given  to  a  natural,  whole  rice,  unpolished,  uncoated,  and  un- 
bleached, by  Mr.  Alfred  McCann,  to  whom  we  are  obligated 
both  as  New  Jersey  Club  women  and  as  individuals  interested 
in  a  courageous  and  able  campaign  for  better  food.  In  his 
opening  address  which  was  out  of  doors  owing  to  the  number 
of  people  listening,  he  picked  up  a  handful  of  earth  from  the 
garden  and  illustrated  therewith  what  many  of  us  had  learned 

131 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

in  Chemistry,  but  without  attaching  the  real  relationship;  the 
fact  that  it  was  composed  of  approximately  fifteen  elements, 
oxygen,  carbon,  hydrogen,  calcium,  phosphorus,  potassium, 
sulphur,  sodium,  chlorine,  magnesium,  iron,  fluorine  and  silicon 
in  mineral  form,  which  were  totally  unfitted  to  nourish  the 
human  organism,  but  all  required  in  the  building  of  animal  cells. 
In  fact  not  one  element  could  with  impunity  be  left  out  of  our 
food  as  a  whole,  or  of  the  original  and  particular  combination 
of  each  separate  article  of  consumption.  The  brown  rice  was 
mentioned  as  a  natural  product  from  which  nothing  had  been 
taken  and  no  element  added,  in  distinction  from  white  rice. 
And  entire  wheat,  with  its  advantages,  rather  than  white  flour 
from  which  nine  of  the  essential  elements  required  for  proper 
digestion  had  been  removed  in  the  process  of  milling.  He  went 
on  to  say  that  wheat  was  the  staff  of  life  and  the  universal  food 
for  man,  for  the  reason  that  it  contained  in  vegetal  form  the 
same  harmonious  balance  of  these  fifteen  elements  found  in  the 
earth  in  his  hand,  and  again  in  the  perfect  animal  organism, 
and  that  to  leave  them  out  of  our  diet,  or  unduly  combine  them 
through  ignorance,  or  intent,  was  risking  the  most  precious 
rock  upon  which  life  was  anchored,  that  of  health  and  well- 
being,  and  to  throw  away  even  the  least  bit  of  the  water  in 
which  a  vegetable  was  boiled,  in  fact  not  to  consume  it  with  the 
vegetable  prepared  was  a  dietetic  sin. 

Those  of  us  who  had  studied  Balanced  Rations  in  weight, 
bulk  and  percentage  of  protein,  carbo-hydrate  and  fat,  had  given 
all  too  little  thought  to  this  most  vital  subject  of  ash,  or  base, 
as  these  elements  are  called,  spending  hours  of  time,  efforts  of 
strength  and  an  over-abundance  of  money  preparing  bread, 
cake,  pastry,  boiled  vegetables  and  meats,  cereals  and  sweets 
from  which  the  life  essence,  the  very  substance  that  makes  for 
assimilation  and  digestion  had  been  extracted  or  unbalanced. 
No  wonder  we  asked  ourselves — Is  this  efficient  feeding?  Does 
it  pay  to  spend  one's  money  and  one's  self  preparing  food  that 
not  only  does  not  give  strength,  but  that  undermines  the  con- 
stitution through  the  absence  of  these  salts  demanded  by  the 
organism  for  the  strength  of  the  bones  and  the  solid  structure, 
the  physical  basis  of  the  cells,  and  for  the  encouragement  of  live 

132 


FOOD,  ITS  PREPARATION  AND  VALUE 

circulation  and  regulation  of  the  blood  and  all  the  secretions 
of  the  body?  Clearly  the  home-maker  must  provide  a  natural, 
unadulterated,  clean  diet  if  she  would  give  her  daily  attention 
to  the  building  up  of  a  strong  and  healthy  family,  not  a  weak 
and  diseased  one.  Inasmuch  as  adulteration,  or  the  introduction 
of  foreign  elements  is  quite  as  deadly  as  denaturing,  for  the 
reason  that  the  system  has  to  use  up  strength  in  combating 
the  inappropriate  substances,  eliminating  them  as  best  it  can, 
generally  by  overtaxing  the  weakest  spot;  for  a  preservative, 
a  synthetic  compound,  or  a  filler  not  only  must  be  cast  out, 
because  it  is  not  life  giving,  but  it  disorganizes  the  whole  natu- 
ral process  of  digestion,  by  getting  in  the  road,  as  it  were, 
and  stopping  or  diverting  the  normal  movement  in  the  ali- 
mentary tract,  using  for  its  deadening  effects  the  very  secre- 
tions and  organs  that  should  be  required  to  act  only  upon  life- 
giving  foods,  thereby  lowering  the  tissue  tone,  reducing  re- 
sistance, robbing  the  body  of  its  vitality,  and  weakening  the 
entire  bone  structure.  We  now  know  that  foreign  and  non- 
assimilative  substances  introduced  into  the  system  not  only 
injure  all  the  organs,  but  indirectly  affect  the  finer  nerves  that 
unite  the  mind  and  soul  with  the  body. 

To  feed  a  family  in  a  safe  and  sane  way,  the  first  step  should 
be  to  educate  the  taste  to  the  real  and  simple  foods  as  nature 
provides  and  matures  them,  untouched  by  the  commercial  hand 
of  man  except  in  so  far  as  is  necessary  to  remove  the  outer,  or 
unedible  chaff,  or  shell,  and  grind,  press,  or  dry  and  pack  and 
distribute  in  clean  and  orderly  fashion. 

Appetite  is  a  wonderful  guide  to  one's  needs,  but  an  ignorant, 
uncontrolled  or  perverted  appetite  is  a  human  disgrace.  When 
the  family  realizes  that  much  of  the  food  that  is  now  prepared 
at  the  expense  of  the  entire  household  is  dead  and  dangerous 
in  character,  the  taste  for  elaborate  desserts,  spongy  white  bread, 
and  anemic-looking  cake  and  rolls,  will  gradually  change  to  a 
more  normal  appetite,  for  that  which  comes  straight  from  Na- 
ture's own  cookstove.  For  a  very  large  part  of  the  work  of 
the  Sun  is  to  prepare  food  for  man.  Storing  up  its  life-giving 
heat  in  the  vegetable  world,  for  future  use.  Does  it  not  seem 
a  little  presumptuous  of  us  to  think  the  results  so  incomplete? 

133 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

Cooking  originally  meant  caking,  or  putting  into  cake  form 
for  more  ready  handling.  It  was  and  should  be  a  process  of 
gently  continuing  the  action  of  the  Sun  through  artificial 
heat  applied  by  a  baking  or  steaming  method,  expanding  and 
softening  the  cells,  but  not  breaking  them.  There  are  three 
kinds  of  expansions.  The  expansion  of  air,  of  liquid,  and  of 
the  more  solid  part.  All  three  should  be  given  ample  oppor- 
tunity to  take  place  in  an  even,  gentle,  and  not  too  rapid  man- 
ner, and  the  cells  should  be  acted  upon  only  by  the  condensing 
of  their  own  moisture,  avoiding  the  adding  of  water  to  any  food 
that  can  possibly  be  cooked  in  another  way.  Prunes,  beans, 
peas,  etc.,  can  be  soaked  in  water  before  cooking  until  they  have 
taken  up  all  they  can  hold,  when  they  can  be  put  in  a  crock  and 
baked  with  no  water.  It  might  be  safe  to  say  that  nothing 
should  be  boiled.  Even  an  egg  is  best  prepared  by  pouring 
boiling  water  over  it  until  it  is  sufficiently  coddled  to  make 
it  palatable.  The  boiling  of  food  not  only  tends  to  extract  from 
it  the  essential  salts,  the  fats,  and  other  properties,  but  the 
continued  application  of  heat  to  the  body  of  boiling  water 
tends  to  break  up  the  cells  of  the  food  into  an  atomic  form  very 
difficult,  if  not  at  times  impossible  of  utilization  by  the  animal 
organism.  Therefore  to  bake  all  foods  that  require  cooking 
at  all  in  a  covered  utensil  in  the  oven,  in  which  has  been  placed 
a  vessel  of  water,  or  in  a  paper  bag,  a  fireless  cooker,  or  a 
form  of  Bain  Marie  on  top  of  the  stove,  is  the  scientific  way 
to  cook,  but  the  least  cooking  done,  the  better.  Life-giving 
foods  should  not  have  their  life  destroyed  by  too  long,  or  too 
great  exposure  to  intense  heat.  Sterilized  foods  are  classed  as 
dead  foods,  not  to  be  used  except  in  the  absence  of  the  real  thing. 
To  a  certain  extent  the  system  can  and  will  use  them,  but  at 
the  expense  of  the  tissues  and  cells  from  which  they  draw  the 
life  elements  that  are  lacking  in  the  food.  The  object  of  the 
salts  is  to  neutralize  the  acids  of  the  end  products,  and  as  the 
body  is  incapable  of  assimilating  inorganic  substances,  the  salts, 
or  the  base  of  our  food,  should  be  organic.  This  brings  us  to 
a  discussion  of  meat  versus  vegetable  diet,  and  the  meaning  of 
protein,  for  while  it  is  essential  that  the  system  be  supplied  with 
sufficient  protein,  it  is  a  grave  question  as  to  whether  it  should 

134 


FOOD,  ITS  PREPARATION  AND  VALUE 

be  furnished  in  animal  form;  second-handed  animal  organisms 
made  out  of  the  dead  carcasses  of  other  animals  certainly  do 
not  appeal  to  one's  poetic  sense  and  is  a  custom  of  feeding  ques- 
tioned by  common  sense. 

That  most  complex  and  almost  undefinable  substance  called 
protein,  is  not  confined  as  many  housewives  believe,  to  meat,  fish, 
eggs,  cheese,  milk,  nuts,  etc.,  but  is  found  in  due  proportion 
in  each  article  of  diet  and  in  all  forms  of  life.  Indeed  it  is  the 
life-fiber  of  all.  The  tissues  of  all  plants,  fruits,  nuts,  cereals, 
and  vegetals  of  every  sort  contain  an  abundance  of  protein  that 
when  not  robbed  of  the  base  that  makes  for  proper  assimila- 
tion, or  broken  and  destroyed  in  the  cell  from  improper  cooking, 
conveys  to  the  system  all  it  requires  for  health  and  strength, 
and  in  the  easiest  manner  in  which  it  can  be  assimilated.  Every 
element  for  nutrition  whether  mineral  or  organic  is  found  in 
the  vegetable  kingdom ;  salts  of  potash,  soda,  iron,  magnesia, 
manganese,  substances  analogous  to  fibrin,  albumen,  gelatin, 
acids,  etc.  The  animal  form  of  food  holds  nothing  for  the  human 
body  that  is  not  better  supplied  by  the  vegetable  kingdom.  If 
we  took  our  meat  alive  and  ate  blood  and  bones,  there  would 
be  less  objection  from  a  physical  point  of  view,  but  when  robbed 
of  the  life-giving  elements  and  vital  salts,  no  class  of  food  so 
quickly  putrefies  and  turns  upon  its  victim  as  animal  food,  and 
the  dangers  are  worse  when  preservative  is  added  as  is  the  cus- 
tom of  many  butchers.  Is  it  then  worth  while  to  spend  large 
sums  of  table  allowance  money  for  meat  even  though  custom 
and  a  false  appetite  demand  this  waste?  It  is  little  less  than 
ruinous  to  child  life,  even  if  adults  can  endure  the  strain  for  a 
time  with  the  accompanying  disorders,  such  as  rheumatism, 
nervous  indigestion,  liver  and  kidney  trouble,  etc.,  for  the  stim- 
ulation produced  by  a  meat  diet,  and  falsely  taken  for  strength, 
must  sooner  or  later  be  true  to  itself  and  no  longer  stimulate. 
There  remains  just  one  other  point  that  the  writer  would  like  to 
discuss  with  the  modern  housewife  before  taking  up  the  subject 
of  what  is  worth  preparing  and  using  in  the  shape  of  food. 
Fully  realizing  it  takes  a  little  audacity  and  courage  to  ex- 
press a  conviction  contrary  to  all  accepted  custom  and  belief, 
she  nevertheless  cannot  doubt  but  that  one's  habitual  use  of 

135 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

yeast  is  the  most  common  dietetic  sin  of  the  times.  To  preach 
temperance  to  the  weak  and  then  calmly  and  sanctimoniously  eat 
and  give  to  them  the  kind  of  bread  usually  served,  is  an  outrage 
against  human  life.  Fermented  bread  is  but  little  better  than 
fermented  liquor,  except  that  its  action  is  slower ;  less  apparent 
and  more  respectable,  but  in  truth  it  is  one  of  the  great  causes 
pfjntemperance ;  its  respectability  therefore  is  hypocritical. 

All  corruption  has  its  beginning  in  fermentation.  A  form  of 
decay  takes  place  before  the  health  of  an  organ  is  affected. 
Foods  and  organs  decay  through  fermentation,  chemicalization 
and  electrolization.  The  first  is  the  result  of  the  breaking  of 
cells.  The  second,  of  the  introduction  of  foreign  and  therefore 
non-assimilative  substances.  And  the  third,  when  a  more  posi- 
tive condition  overcomes  a  negative  one,  and  a  galvanic  battery 
is  established.  Organisms  are  able  to  appropriate  rightly,  or 
wrongly,  but  the  spirit  of  life  manifests  according  to  law  by 
which  one  must  abide,  to  have  construction  and  incorruption. 
The  form  in  which  life-giving  food  must  be  supplied  is  cellu- 
lar, unbroken  cells,  and  as  cells  develop  from  a  center  or 
nucleus,  the  very  disposition  of  each  cell,  either  hereditary,  ac- 
quired, or  inflicted,  has  a  peculiar  life-giving  quality  when 
conveyed  in  food.  As  the  object  of  all  food  is  to  create,  pre- 
j  serve,  and  develop  life,  so  the  life  value  of  all  food  is  deter- 
,  mined  by  the  absence  of  all  tendency  to  decay,  crystallize,  elec- 
trolize  and  the  presence  of  unbroken  cells  carried  to  the  sys- 
l  tern  without  chemicalization.  For  as  the  human  body  develops 
through  chrysalization,  not  crystalization,  and  as  all  minerals, 
or  "chemicals"  have  an  habitual  form  in  the  latter, — even  sodi- 
um-chloride— they  are  unfit  for  food.  The  system  can  handle 
them  only  by  using  considerable  energy  in  ridding  itself  of 
such  crystals  and  their  effect. 

Before  deciding  what  foods  should  be  eaten,  let  us  inquire 
into  the  process  of  digestion,  which  in  the  animal  is  in  three 
forms  and  three  localities,  airiform,  liquiform,  solidiform,  the 
first  in  the  head,  the  second  in  the  stomach,  and  the  third  in  the 
intestines.  As  food  is  properly  combined  in  these  forms  and  its 
value  given  up  and  effectively  acted  upon  by  the  juices  or 
humors  of  each  locality,  proportionate  life  therein  is  maintained. 

136 


FOOD,  ITS  PREPARATION  AND  VALUE 

The  adaptation  of  these  juices  is  by  virtue  of  the  kind  and 
flavor  of  the  food  offered.  Foods  delivered  to  the  system  that 
have  the  most  material  to  be  acted  upon,  are  to  be  chosen. 
They  may  be  flavors  of  an  active,  passive,  or  moderate  quality, 
such  as  are  normally  craved  for  the  upbuilding  and  conserving 
of  an  undecaying  organism;  an  organism  that  can  hold  its 
vitality,  proving  "Its  seed  is  in  itself." 

Instead  of  dividing  foods  into  protein,  carbo-hydrate,  and  fat, 
which  is  more  or  less  confusing  and  misleading,  let  us  take 
the  natural  division  of  gum,  t)il  and  fiber.  All  foods  are  a 
combination  of  these,  which  together  with  natural  sweet,  con- 
vey and  manifest  the  spirit  and  the  law  of  life  through  the 
creative,  preservative  and  developtive  principles  in  solid,  airi- 
form,  or  liquid  substances.  The  hidden  life  value  in  food  is 
in  the  amount  of  cleansing,  healing,  or  strengthening  quality 
conveyed  in  bitter,  sweet,  or  stringy  fibrous  form.  Foods  car- 
rying the  highest  life  value  are  classified  as  perfectly  ripe  unde- 
cayed  fruits,  and  nuts,  ripe  full-sized  grain  and  other  seeds  and 
eggs,  fresh  juices  and  oils  of  fruits  and  seeds,  milk,  honey,  herbs 
and  vegetables.  The  fiber  supplying  life  to  the  muscles,  the 
oil  or  liquid  to  the  glands  and  circulation,  the  cells  or  seeds  sup- 
plying the  cellular  system,  which  is  practically  the  whole 
system. 

In  the  preparation  of  unfermented  bread,  crumbly  lightness 
should  be  the  aim,  not  spongy.  The  ordinary  basis  for  all  such 
bread  is  about  three  cups  of  whole  wheat  flour,  or  meal,  to  three 
tablespoons  of  olive  oil  and  sufficient  cold  water  to  spread  it 
or  make  it  into  cakes,  but  care  should  be  taken  not  to  add 
too  much  water.  This  bread  can  be  varied  in  a  hundred  ways, 
using  all  kinds  of  grain,  or  seed  meal,  introducing  different 
kinds  of  nuts  and  fruits,  flavoring  and  eggs.  The  foundation 
should  always  be  a  meal  made  from  an  entire  grain,  slow 
ground;  the  latter,  because  a  slow  method  of  milling  is  safer 
than  the  present  quick  process,  for  the  reason  that  rapid  mill- 
ing generates  heat  and  causes  a  chemical  change  to  take  place 
in  whatever  is  being  ground.  This  added  to  the  bleaching 
process,  the  robbing  of  the  outer  coatings, — or  bran, — and 
the  inner  kernel,  or  germ,  the  powdery  form  and  the  almost 

137 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

complete  sterilization  that  makes  it  possible  to  keep  ordinary 
flour  almost  indefinitely,  suggests  a  more  than  risky  food  prod- 
uct in  white  patent-process  flour  even  without  the  contamina- 
tion of  yeast.  Oil  is  used  for  the  crumbly  lightness  in  any  pro- 
portion preferred,  and  care  should  be  taken  to  beat  in  all  the 
air  possible  even  to  making  the  bread  in  an  airy  place.  There 
is  a  method,  however,  of  pumping  air  into  bread  instead  of  using 
yeast,  advocated  by  Dr.  Danghlish,  but  untried  as  yet  by  the 
writer.  Unleavened  bread  should  always  be  baked  in  the  form  of 
cakes,  or  crackers,  gems,  waffles  and  pancakes,  and  not  in  thick 
loaves  unless  Dr.  Danghlish's  method  makes  this  practical. 
These  breads  not  only  take  less  time  in  the  making,  than  the 
leaven  bread,  but  keep  fresh  longer,  and  never  seem  to  tire  the 
appetite  as  do  the  conventional  customary  receipts.  These 
with  fresh  tree-ripened  fruit,  fresh  milk  and  cream,  salad,  cod- 
dled eggs,  nuts,  dried  fruits  and  vegetables  give  all  the  nour- 
ishment required  through  a  simple  process  of  preparation. 
Cooking,  when  properly  done,  should  be  an  aid  to  digestion  by 
softening  and  expanding  the  cells  that  would  otherwise  be  im- 
pervious to  the  digestive  juices,  carrying  out  a  further  ripen- 
ing process,  but  Oh!  how  often  it  but  carries  the  poison  from 
which  the  race  is  slowly  dying,  through  physical  inefficiency, 
particularly  when  left  to  the  unintelligent,  uneducated,  common- 
senseless  average  servant.  Even  at  best  it  has  its  disadvantages. 
What  is  known  as  the  albumen — a  form  of  protein — is  coagu- 
lated and  made  less  digestible,  while  a  part  of  the  organic  salts 
are  changed  into  an  inorganic  state,  so  that  every  care  should 
be  taken  that  cooking  may  do  as  little  injury  as  can  be  guarded 
against,  through  the  most  complete  understanding  of  the  ap- 
plication of  principle  and  the  operation  of  the  right  method. 
As  a  rule  the  housewife  wastes  too  much  time  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  food-stuffs.  She  should  be  skilled  in  the  use  of  whole- 
some fruits  and  vegetables;  the  steaming  and  baking  of  such 
kinds  as  require  any  cooking,  and  the  making  of  an  endless 
variety  of  salads,  unleavened  breads,  cakes  and  unfermented 
drinks.  The  most  successful  menus  are  those  that  contain  only 
three  or  four  varieties  of  food,  and  those  in  season  and  perfect. 
The  regular,  conventional  course  dinner  consisting  of  a  dozen 

138 


FOOD,  ITS  PREPARATION  AND  VALUE 

or  more  dishes,  is  in  truth  a  coarse  and  disorganizing  custom, 
an  abomination  and  a  contamination  for  the  individual  and  for 
society,  laying  a  foundation  for  all  kinds  of  digestive  troubles, 
colds,  pneumonia,  etc.,  the  result  of  retained  poison.  Simplicity 
in  diet  should  be  made  one  of  the  most  important  factors  in 
education.  Not  by  any  means  should  this  be  understood  as 
eliminating  the  aesthetic,  or  the  beauty  element  of  the  table. 
In  fact  more  time  can  be  devoted  to  the  serving  and  the  stand- 
ard of  the  service  generally,  if  less  is  consumed  in  a  compli- 
cated kind  of  cooking  that  requires  even  a  foreign  language  as 
a  menu  to  further  carry  out  the  spirit  of  uncertainty.  One 
spends  hours  in  preparing  and  cooking  at  length  a  "made  dish" 
that  in  most  cases  would  be  far  wiser  for  health  and  efficiency's 
sake  to  serve  its  separate  ingredients,  in  as  beautiful  a  shape 
as  possible,  but  in  natural  form,  giving  every  care  to  the  value 
of  flavor. 

One  of  the  signs  of  bad  cooking  is  to  have  the  flavors,  or 
odors,  escape  in  any  way  during  the  process.  A  kitchen  from 
which  emanates  such  odors  as  justly  take  on  the  name  of  smell, 
is  either  presided  over  by  ignorance,  or  provided  with  inade- 
quate equipment.  When  it  is  more  fully  realized  that  assimila- 
tion and  good  digestion  not  only  wait  upon  appetite  and  good 
food,  but  upon  one's  disposition,  state  of  mind,  and  psychic  con- 
dition, generally,  more  thought  and  attention  will  be  given  to 
the  flavor,  the  beauty,  and  the  vital  charm  of  the  food,  as  it 
brings  together  the  family  at  table. 

Nutrition  and  vitality  are  dependent  upon  the  humors,  or 
juices  and  secretions  of  the  body, — upon  their  consistency  and 
free  flow  at  the  right  moment.  A  beautiful  and  luscious  peach 
makes  the  mouth  water ;  the  charm  of  the  fruit,  before  it  even 
enters  the  mouth,  is  having  its  effect  upon  the  flow  and  quality 
of  saliva  that  is  making  ready  to  receive  it.  A  portion  is  taken, 
and  the  three  salivary  glands  on  either  side  of  the  mouth  pour 
six  tiny  streams  of  essential  liquid  about  the  tongue.  If  the 
peach  is  properly  masticated — that  is,  chewed  twenty  or  thirty 
times — and  consciously  mixed  with  a  flow  of  saliva  from  the 
back  of  the  throat,  from  five  to  ten  times  at  least,  the  mechan- 
ical operation  for  perfect  digestion  is  well  started.  If  to  this 

139 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

is  added  from  start  to  finish  the  appreciation  that  the  airiform 
quality,  or  -flavor  of  the  mouthful  during  mastication,  is  what 
feeds  and  makes  for  better  brain  and  nerve  condition,  and  that 
the  enjoyment  of  its  flavor,  or  pleasure  of  the  morsel  in  the  head 
is  necessary  for  the  proper  flow  of  secretions  all  along  the  ali- 
mentary tract,  the  right  beginning  in  how  and  what  to  eat  has 
been  made.  For  this  same  peach  entering  the  body  as  a  little 
piece  of  fruit  is  going  to  be  walking  around  as  you  to-morrow, 
but  it  cannot  without  leaving  ill  effects  in  its  wake,  unless  the 
right  start  has  been  made  in  the  head.  The  chewing,  the  reflex 
movement,  or  deliberate  mixture  of  saliva  from  the  front  of  the 
palate,  so  that  the  six  streams  may  play  properly,  is  the  part, 
that  each  consumer  must  play  consciously  in  order  that  the 
juices  of  the  stomach  be  made  to  flow,  and  proper  action  or 
churning  there,  be  the  occasion  of  the  flow  and  action  of  the 
juices  of  the  intestines,  so  that  after  all,  if  the  peach  digest,  it 
is  about  fifteen  parts  you,  to  one  of  peach  even  at  the  start. 

How  to  eat  is  one  of  the  prime  knowledges  that  should  be 
practiced  continually  and  handed  down  to  the  child  at  the  ear- 
liest possible  age.  To  acquire  an  appetite  for  any  special  thing 
is  a  common  experience.  How  much  easier  is  it  to  acquire  a 
right  and  natural  method  of  eating?  Instead  of  that,  we  refine 
our  foods  until  not  only  the  substance  is  gone,  but  a  pap-like 
consistency  makes  chewing  and  all  it  means  a  forgotten  art, 
and  our  food  passes  with  too  great  speed  into  an  unprepared 
and  inefficient  stomach  paralyzed  to  a  degree.  The  result  is 
"The  Great  American  Disease"  Nervous  Indigestion.  We  have 
given  no  time  to  feeding  our  nerves  through  the  natural  avenue 
of  the  air  channels  in  the  head.  There  are  certain  foods  that 
have  little  value  except  while  in  the  mouth,  and  are  apt  to  rather 
disturb  the  other  localities  of  digestion,  such  as  the  radish  for 
instance,  and  the  garlic,  but  tremendously  useful  for  the  nerv- 
ous system  and  the  feeding  of  the  air  glands. 

Again,  food  for  the  stomach  from  which  the  circulation  gen- 
erally is  supplied,  should  be  in  liquid  form.  How  important 
therefore  it  is  that  the  mechanical  action  in  the  mouth  should 
reduce  it  as  nearly  as  possible  to  that  state  from  which  the  blood 
can  be  rightly  supplied.  That  it  may  not  become  a  poor,  tired, 

140 


FOOD,  ITS  PREPARATION  AND  VALUE 

overworked  organ  only  improperly  fulfilling  its  function,  for 
"The  stomach  is  the  kitchen  of  the  soul."  It  does  its  best  to 
overcome  the  sins  of  the  mouth  and  to  make  ready  the  right 
conditions  for  the  lower  digestion  in  the  intestines,  but  the  poor 
appendix,  the  guardian  of  this  area,  is  telling  a  sad  tale  of 
abuse  higher  up.  It  in  turn  does  its  best,  standing  on  watch 
at  the  valve,  and  pumping  and  lubricating  as  heroically  as  it 
can,  that  the  overcrowding  of  material  may  be  made  to  pass 
safely  up  the  great  colon,  but  how  wickedly  often  it  is  made  to 
succumb  and  go  to  the  wall,  leaving  the  poor  third  digestion 
hopelessly  in  the  dark.  If  one  ate  only  when  hunger  demands, 
when  the  mouth  waters  at  the  thought  of  a  crust,  and  then  mas- 
ticated and  fed  the  brain  and  nerve  as  it  should  be  fed,  all  the 
other  automatic  processes  of  assimilation  would  be  safe  and 
orderly,  and  the  blind  appendix  would  stand  as  exquisite  aid 
to  the  end.  As  a  general  rule  people  eat  too  much,  but  as  it 
is  not  always  wise  to  make  sudden  changes,  the  safest  and  most 
pleasant  course  to  take  is  to  overeat  if  we  will,  of  the  lighter 
class  of  foods.  Meats,  fish,  rich  sauces,  cheese,  fried  things, 
fermented  breads,  pastry  and  liquors  should  give  way  to  vege- 
tables and  whole  grain  cereals ;  these  in  turn  to  fruits,  olive  oil, 
and  honey.  If  one  finally  overeats  at  all,  let  it  be  of  the  class 
which  includes  fresh  ripe  berries  and  fruit  juices.  If  eaten  alone 
these  will  be  found  to  produce  the  least  ill  effect. 

Physical  and  mental  efficiency,  absence  of  that  tired  feeling, 
and  colds,  and  a  good  circulation,  are  the  best  signs  of  proper 
nutrition.  The  mere  following  of  fashion  in  food  has  not  only 
played  havoc  with  the  human  body,  but  with  the  pocketbook, 
and  with  the  home-maker's  peace  of  mind. 

How  often  we  hear  even  the  devoted  mother  and  wife  say: 
"I  do  not  object  to  any  of  the  work,  or  responsibility  of  the 
home,  excepting  the  constant  three  meals  a  day  and  all  that 
they  mean."  In  the  last  part  of  the  phrase  is  the  trouble. 
"All  that  they  mean"  in  the  demand  of  custom  and  the  indi- 
vidual requirement  of  her  household.  If  it  but  went  for  health 
and  strength,  there  would  be  a  very  different  feeling,  but  she 
usually  knows  that  all  is  not  well,  and  her  soul  is  unsatisfied. 
Yet  to  suddenly  serve  to  an  unprepared  family  an  efficient 

141 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

breakfast,  even  ever  so  beautifully,  would  probably  start  a  domes- 
tic riot.  Imagine  how  the  average  modern  husband  would  re- 
spond to  an  early  morning  meal,  even  elaborately  served  in  his 
boudoir,  of  two  unleavened  cakes,  a  cup  of  orange  juice  and 
honey,  a  slightly  coddled  egg  covered  with  a  little  slippery  elm 
bark  perhaps,  and  a  bit  of  yarrow  or  quasha  root  to  chew  in- 
stead of  a  cigar.  Would  his  temper  be  right  for  business  that 
day?  Even  though  we  are  sure  his  mind  and  nerve  would  be, 
provided  he  could  be  made  to  enjoy  and  properly  partake  of 
his  breakfast. 

Again,  a  luncheon  served  to  the  children  of  baked  potato, 
skins  and  all,  covered  with  the  best  of  olive  oil,  and  eaten  with 
unfermented  bread  and  nut  sandwiches,  and  a  bit  of  fruit,  would 
hardly  satisfy  the  boy  and  girl  who  have  been  accustomed  to 
meat,  soup,  fish,  a  salad  and  pie,  all  at  the  same  meal,  and  yet 
surely  the  first  menu  would  make  better  bone  and  muscle  and 
healthier  boys  and  girls,  but  we  must  first  come  to  the  convic- 
tion through  education,  before  we  can  gracefully  bring  our 
husbands,  children  and  guests  to  a  table  prepared  in  this 
fashion. 

Yet  it  should  surely  interest  every  woman  in  the  land  to  help 
on  the  great  crusade  for  health  and  efficiency  in  which  nothing 
is  more  basically  important  and  readily  controllable  than  food. 
Of  course  proper  rest,  exercise  and  mental  attitude  have  their 
place,  but  all  these  are  put  in  order  and  greatly  depend  upon 
food.  Efficiency  means  getting  the  most  ideal  results  through 
a  method  in  which  there  is  the  least  waste.  Can  we  say  as  a 
class,  that  the  feeding  of  our  families,  or  ourselves,  is  on  an 
efficient  basis?  Even  where  health  appears  to  abound,  a  weak 
spot  is  usually  an  accompaniment,  and  after  all,  a  body  is  only 
as  strong  as  its  weakest  organ.  Can  we  not,  therefore,  become 
more  positively  efficient  as  women,  responsible  for  the  feeding 
and  nourishing  of  the  race,  by  first  understanding  real  food 
values  and  the  actual  dangers  of  our  present  food  supply,  sec- 
ond by  knowing  and  practicing  with  ever  increasing  skill,  the 
method  of  cooking  that  makes  for  highest  life  values,  third  by 
serving  the  food  in  such  a  way  as  to  charm  and  delight  those 
who  partake,  and  fourth  by  becoming  consumers  of  high  un- 

142 


FOOD,  ITS  PREPARATION  AND  VALUE 

derstanding  and  thereby  regulating  the  evils  under  which  right 
existence  is  not  possible?  (the  commercial  practice  of  denatur- 
ing in  order  that  food  shall  meet  the  requirement  of  the  local 
market,  and  keep  at  least  for  a  year  as  shipped,  the  danger- 
ous adulterating  with  chemicals  totally  unfit  for  food,  and 
the  unsanitary  exposure  to  contamination.)  It  is  the  consumer, 
the  woman  of  the  home  that  must  regulate  these  matters.  Nei- 
ther the  market  men,  nor  the  manufacturers  should  be  expected 
to  supply  aught  save  such  products  as  meet  the  demand.  The 
women  must  become  as  "wise  as  serpents  and  as  gentle  as 
doves,"  if  they  would  guard  their  loved  ones  from  the  ravages 
of  the  present  wild  combinations  in  our  "daily  bread,"  and 
rightly  and  honestly  perform  their  first  and  most  sacred  func- 
tion^as  intended  by  the  Creator — the  function  of  conserving 
and  organizing  Life. 


143 


CHAPTER  XV 

SYSTEM  IN   HOUSEKEEPING 

"System,  ...  an  organized  body  of  truth,  or  truths,  arranged  under 
one  and  the  same  idea,  which  idea  is  as  the  life  or  soul  that 
animates  all  those  truths  " 

How  often  do  we  hear  the  good  housewife  declare  with  that 
well-known  air  of  personal  satisfaction:  "You  know  system  is 
everything."  "I  have  a  regular  time  for  doing  each  thing,  and 
I  see  that  nothing  interferes  with  its  being  done  at  the  ap- 
pointed hour."  Visions  of  having  to  rise  in  the  morning 
"whether  or  no,"  of  eating  and  sleeping  by  the  clock,  of  clean- 
ing because  of  its  being  cleaning  day,  rather  than  from  its 
being  actually  necessary,  and  in  short  carrying  out  rules  with  a 
mechanical  regularity  that  instead  of  making  for  real  efficiency 
and  the  right  sort  of  atmosphere,  has  a  deadening  effect,  in  sac- 
rificing inclination  and  mood  to  a  cut-and-dried  schedule  and 
routine.  The  aesthetic  little  home-maker,  on  the  other  hand, 
will  say:  "It  is  impossible  for  me  to  be  systematic."  "It's  no 
use;  I've  tried  and  tried,  and  if  anything,  I  grow  worse." 
"Just  the  day  I  set  apart  to  do  some  particular  thing,  is  the 
time  of  all  times  that  I  must  write  a  poem,  practice  a  new  piece,  or 
see  a  friend.  Oh!  I  know  I  never  can  keep  house  if  I  do  not 
learn  to  be  systematic,  but  I  begin  to  despair." 

Now  what  is  it  that  these  two  types  of  home  builders  are 
after?  Is  it  not  a  smoothly  running  establishment,  where 
pleasure,  comfort,  ease,  leisure  and  peace  are  easily  possible? 
Each  believing  system  to  be  the  essential  element,  but  with  what 
strange  conception;  instead  of  life  first,  and  system  as  a  com- 
prehensive plan  for  its  expression,  it  is  system  that  would  con- 
trol the  whole.  Again,  one  frequently  meets  the  woman  who 
having  had  her  share  of  home  discouragement,  vehemently  re- 
sponds :  "Don't  talk  system  to  me :  I  had  it  drummed  into  me 
at  home  until  I  felt  myself  a  regular  machine.  I  never  did  any- 

144 


SYSTEM    IN    HOUSEKEEPING 

thing  worth  while  until  I  got  away  from  that  monotonous 
grind."  And  there,  seems  to  me,  rests  the  difficulty.  ^System  is 
not  the  routine  it  appears  to  be,  and  is  so  often  mistaken  to  be ; 
but  something  far  bigger  and  more  complex  than  the  aver- 
age house-worker  has  been  able  to  put  into  practice.  One  in- 
stinctively recognizes  its  importance,  even  when  restricted  by 
the  understanding  of  its  meaning.  But  let  us  see  if  there  is 
not  a  way  of  making  it  both  an  inspiration  and  a  guide  to  the 
sort  of  home  we  would  all  have,  were  our  hopes  and  desires  re- 
duced to  the  last  analysis. 

System  is  merely  a  working  basis  in  which  some  one  idea,  or 
purpose,  leads  all  the  others  of  the  same  group.  In  other 
words,  a  whole  plan,  or  scheme,  consisting  of  many  parts  con- 
nected in  such  a  manner  as  to  create  a  chain  of  mutual  depend- 
encies. Any  method  of  arranging  in  orderly  sequence,  with  due 
co-ordination  and  relative  subordination  of  the  several  parts. 
Order  becomes  the  result,  or  the  harmonious  arrangement  of  the 
parts.  The  design  of  an  intelligent  agent,  or  the  suggestion  of 
such  design.  And  method,  merely  the  way  of  proceeding,  or 
the  process  of  arriving.  Rules,  meaning  certain  requirements 
and  regularity  the  even  disposition  of  acts.  There  may,  how- 
ever, be  no  suggestion  of  purpose  in  regularity,  hence  it  is  less 
intelligent  and  more  binding  than  order.  Indeed  there  is  much 
regularity  without  order,  and  the  most  perfect  order  is  often 
secured  with  the  least  regularity.  The  same  may  be  said  of  sys- 
tem. One  frequently  finds  a  regularity  in  system  that  is  de- 
structive of  the  value  of  the  whole.  But  most  so-called  Systems, 
unless  one  is  conscious  of  the  live  principles  involved,  tend  to 
make  routine  workers.  A  monotonous  and  habitual  doing  of 
the  same  thing  day  after  day  in  the  same  way.  There  is  a  rest- 
lessness and  a  creative  side  of  the  human  mind  and  heart  that 
wearies  of,  and  is  hostile  to  the  habit  of  routiner  On  the  other 
hand,  most  people  find  it  all  too  easy  to  drop  into  a  rut  and  do 
things  from  habit  induced  by  circumstances.  As  George  Eliot 
said :  "That  beneficent  harness  of  routine  which  enables  silly  men 
to  live  respectably,  and  unhappy  men  to  live  calmly."  However, 
like  all  other  elements,  in  its  proper  place  it  is  invaluable,  giving 
the  day  a  balance  that  makes  time  dependable,  but  when  mistaken 

145 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

for  System  it  becomes  a  lifeless  and  uninspired  master.  Enough 
has  been  said  to  realize  that  any  system  worthy  the  name  should 
stand  for  and  include  a  sort  of  philosophy  of  life.  There  is 
no  particular  merit  in  housekeeping,  no  matter  how  spotless  the 
premises,  or  perfect  the  appointments,  unless  it  is  done  with  the 
highest  human  purpose  in  mind  of  which  the  worker  is  capable. 
The  motive  must  be  strong  and  fine,  for  Motive  after  all  is 
King.  One  desire  leads  in  all  undertaking,  whether  we  will,  or 
not.  One  star  guides  our  steps.  Does  it  not  behoove  us  then  to 
hitch  the  housekeeping  wagon  to  the  right  star ;  to  the  one  idea 
which  shall  assimilate  all  the  others  in  the  domestic  system? 
Determine  what  shall  be  the  motive,  and  think  out  a  plan  of 
procedure,  for  to  go  blindly  or  indefinitely  along, — for  in- 
stance, believing  table-cloths  and  linen  bedspreads  and  shams 
are  to  be  preferred  to  a  little  money  left  over  at  the  end  of  the 
month  for  pleasure  or  cultural  purposes,  an  entree,  to  an  hour's 
musical  or  physical  practice,  and  a  clean  house  at  the  expense 
of  health  and  amiability, — is  to  be  weakly  led  by  an  artificial 
system  which  dictates  much  falseness  in  its  premise.  These 
things  and  their  like  may  be  most  important  to  the  individual. 
The  point  is  to  let  us  be  sure  that  they  are,  by  starting  from 
the  right  principles  and  intelligently  following  a  natural  system 
founded  upon  true  elementary  propositions,  and  the  constructive 
laws  of  nature,  for  an  accepted  principle  becomes  a  power,  the 
cause  from  which  all  our  acts  proceed ;  an  ever-present,  active, 
fundamental  cause  that  of  necessity  produces  certain  results. 
The  Bible  says :  "Take  no  heed  of  what  ye  shall  eat,  or  what  ye 
shall  drink,  or  wherewithal  ye  shall  be  clothed,  for  the  Lord 
knoweth  ye  have  need  of  all  these  things." 

It  is,  however,  very  positive  in  first  laying  down  the  law,  that 
one  shall  "Love  the  Lord  with  all  thy  heart,  with  all  thy  mind, 
and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  thy  neighbour  as  thyself."  This  be- 
comes then  the  governing  principle,  and  results  in  action. 

The  principles  in  home-making,  to  which  I  believe  we  should 
devote  ourselves,  is  the  family's  best  development — including  the 
prosperity  of  each  individual  member.  The  children  should 
have  no  more  permanent  consideration  than  the  parents ;  the 
older  people  than  the  young;  the  public  or  society  than  the 

146 


SYSTEM    IN    HOUSEKEEPING 

hearthstone;  wealth  than  health,  or  appearance  than  reality 
generally — both  are  necessary — all  should  make  up  the  grow- 
ing home.  We  boil  down  the  bones  to  their  very  essence.  We 
should  learn  to  as  skillfully  boil  down  the  usual  systems  of 
housekeeping  to  the  very  juice  of  right  principle,  for  the 
standard  is  as  we  make  it.  No  two  homes  need  or  can  be  alike 
any  more  than  two  persons,  but  the  principles  and  the  system 
upon  which  they  are  operated  may  be  as  like  as  the  food  we 
eat,  the  air  we  breathe,  the  wood  we  burn,  or  the  water  we 
drink.  In  fact,  there  is  nothing  that  makes  for  so  wonderful 
and  beautiful  variety  of  effect,  as  to  center  the  cause  in  the 
deepest,  truest,  simplest  and  most  natural  of  elements.  In- 
stead of  Mrs.  Grundy  dictating  what  one  shall  do  and  when 
one  shall  do  it,  the  very  heart  of  nature  prompts  the  move,  be- 
cause all  psychological  law  is  bent  that  way  and  right  effects 
must  follow  right  causes.  Flexibility  of  system  is  the  result; 
live,  smooth,  active,  efficient  management  is  developed.  A  clean 
home,  a  healthy  home,  a  beautiful  and  a  happy  home,  become 
the  controlling  principles,  and  a  system  whereby  these  parts 
may  be  made  to  co-ordinate  and  subordinate  themselves  one  to 
another,  as  the  occasion  demands,  is  freighted  with  a  greater 
object  and  promise  than  the  idea  that  the  home  is  builded  upon 
the  work  being  done  on  time  by  demand,  and  in  the  traditional 
way. 

In  such  a  mechanical  routine  wash-day  truly  takes  on  the 
atmosphere  of  "Blue  Monday"  and  Saturday  becomes  a  day 
that  cries  out  for  rest.  Splendid !  of  course  it  is  to  keep  up  to 
time  and  be  regular  in  the  common  necessities  of  every-day  liv- 
ing. The  important  thing  is  that  the  thought  should  be  right 
in  the  meaning  of  the  days  of  the  week,  so  that  each  becomes  a 
creative  period  productive  of  housework  development,  instead 
of  housework  routine.  Just  before  the  opening  of  the  Station, 
the  writer  realizing  that  much  of  the  cost  of  living  and  the  dis- 
satisfaction in  the  Kitchen  was  the  result  of  the  passing  away 
of  the  old  ideals  and  the  need  of  a  new  point  of  view,  wondered 
how  best  the  idea  of  professionalizing  housework  and  home- 
making  could  be  practically  demonstrated  as  to  be  understood 
by  all — because  of  the  common-place  standard — while  she, 

147 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

with  others,  had  the  feeling  that  this  could  and  must  be  done,  it 
was  very  vague  as  to  just  what  plan  would  be  acceptable  and 
make  for  advancement  and  simplicity,  rather  than  any  added 
burden  and  complexity.    Everywhere  the  woman  seemed  to  think 
that  the  profession  of  home-making  had  too  many  "variables" 
;o  be  unified,  or  classified.     No  general  system  could  possibly 
apply  because  each  home  was  a  law  unto  itself,  with  human 
nature  as  the  controlling  factor:  two  points — of  all  others — 
;hat  cried  out  as  most  needing  such  a  system.     After  a  particu- 
arly  long  evening's  discussion  upon  the  subject,  a  meditative 
light  and  a  thoughtful  day,  she  was  passing  through  the  house 
and  in  so  doing  noticed  a  number  of  pamphlets  and  papers 
mong  the  evening  mail,  on  the  receiving  table.    Leisurely  turn- 
ng  over  one  of  these,  she  was  attracted  by  the  title :  "The 
3rinciples   of  Scientific  Management.   Taylor."      This   was   in 
February,  1911,  just  after  Mr.  Frederick  Taylor's  famous  ad- 
dress before  the  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers  on  "The  Effi- 
ciency Method."     She  opened  the  little  book,  reading  here  and 
here  a  phrase,  and  verily  it  seemed  like  an  answer  from  above, 
lere  were  the  very  elements  and  factors  put  together  and  into 
>ractice,  and  made  to  apply  to  the  same  number  of  variables 
hat  the  evening  before  had  been  discussed  as  not  practical; 
:ven  that  all-impeding  thing,  human  nature,  came  into  its  own 
;hrough  the  application  of  psychology,  and  was  happy  to  take 
ts  place  in  the  industry  of  production.    Why  was  this  not  just 
hat  we  were  looking  for?    A  system  devised  by  man  for  man's 
pursuits,  but  equally  applicable  to  woman,  and  prophetic  of  a 
unity  of  purpose.     Before  the  evening  was  over,  she  had  read 
he  little  book  through  twice,  with  a  most  critical  mind  and  a 
determination  to  discover  if  there  was  anything  involved  there- 
n  that  would  not  apply  to  housework.    It  all  seemed  to  fit  beau- 
ifully  as  far  as  it  went,  but  more  was  needed.     Hence  to  find 
Mr.  Taylor,  to  learn  more,  to  see  the  operation  of  the  system, 
md  to  discover  from  whence  other  light  might  be  had,  became 
he  effort  of  the  rest  of  the  season.     The  Experiment  Station 
ipened  in  June,  and  by  that  time  a  real  foundation  had  been 
aid  in  the  application  of  Scientific  Management  to  the  home, 
hich  has  steadily  grown  in  value  and  proportion  ever  since, 

148 


SYSTEM    IN    HOUSEKEEPING 

until  most  of  the  leading  efficiency  experts  of  the  country  see 
the  revolutionized  home  of  the  future,  as  well  as  the  shop  and 
great  corporation.  After  all,  there  is  nothing  new  or  strange 
in  this  system.  The  same  kind  of  Management  has  been  used 
since  the  beginning  of  time  by  most  and  various  successful  en- 
terprises, but  it  was  supposed  to  be  the  result  of  the  talent  of 
some  great  personality,  opportunity,  or  mysterious  circum- 
stance. Good  managers,  like  good  actors,  had  to  be  born,  not 
made.  We  now  know  through  the  careful  mastering  of  a  defi- 
nite technique,  they  can  be  made,  if  but  a  tendency  be  born. 
Herein  is  the  hope  of  the  housewife  of  the  times.  She  who  no 
longer  is  schooled  in  mother's  ways,  raised  in  the  subject  and 
looked  upon  as  a  person  of  talent  and  standing,  if  she  succeeds. 
The  "tendency"  for  home-making  is  deep  down  in  the  breast  of 
nearly  every  woman  in  the  land,  if  she  could  succeed  in  fully 
realizing  her  life's  purpose  in  that  field  of  effort,  but  with  house- 
work condemned  to  everlasting  drudgery,  scorned  and  pushed 
upon  the  shoulders  of  the  most  ignorant  of  workers,  a  hundred 
years  behind  the  times  in  theory  and  practice,  absorbing  one's 
entire  life,  and  giving  in  return  so  precious  little  for  all  the 
time,  money  and  strength  devoted  to  it,  is  it  any  wonder  she  has 
turned — when  finding  herself  no  genius  in  the  art — to  what  has 
seemed  more  fertile  spheres  of  action? 

Scientific  Management  is  the  return-home-call  to  Nature's 
own.  In  its  application  to  the  profession  of  home-making  is  to 
be  found  every  answer  to  the  work-a-day  longing  of  the  human 
soul.  It  is  not  simple  or  easy,  but  it  is  worth  while,  for  it  gives 
big  return  for  every  serious  effort  made,  and  effort  is  the  law 
of  life.  While  the  writer  believes  every  woman  interested  should 
read  Mr.  Taylor's  books,  and  while  she  was  enormously  helped 
by  his  further  masterful  instruction,  for  the  purposes  of  house- 
work and  the  more  definite  and  simple  use  of  this  system,  the 
twelve  principles  as  laid  down  by  Harrington  Emerson  are  the 
ones  to  be  discussed  in  this  Chapter,  as  best  fitted  to  the  feminine 
mind,  in  the  developing  of  domestic  engineering  and  household 
technology.  They  are,  however,  founded  upon,  and  harmonious 
with,  the  four  great  basic  and  underlying  principles  of  the 
father  of  this  Science — i.e. : 

149 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

1st.  The  Scientific  way  of  doing  everything. 

2d.  The  Scientific  selection  of  the  workman. 

3d.  The  Scientific  training  of  the  workman. 

4th.  The  intimate,  friendly  co-operation  between  the  Manage- 
ment and  the  Workers. 

The  First  making  for  science,  not  rule  of  thumb.  The  Sec- 
ond, for  harmony,  not  discord.  The  Third,  for  co-operative 
development,  not  "machine"  workers.  The  Fourth,  for  maxi- 
mum output,  in  place  of  restricted  output,  and  the  development 
of  each  man  to  his  greatest  efficiency  and  prosperity. 

While,  as  Mr.  Taylor  says,  there  is  no  new  or  startling  fact 
brought  to  light  in  this  that  was  not  known  to  someone  in  the 
past,  Scientific  Management  does  not  necessarily  involve  any 
great  invention,  or  the  discovery  of  new  facts.  It  does,  how- 
ever, involve  a  certain  combination  of  elements  which  have  not 
existed  in  the  past,  namely :  old  knowledge  so  collected,  analyzed, 
grouped  and  classified  into  laws  and  rules,  that  it  constitutes  a 
Science,  accompanied  by  a  complete  change  in  the  mental  atti- 
tude of  the  worker  as  well  as  of  those  on  the  side  of  the  manage- 
ment, toward  each  other,  and  toward  their  respective  duties  and 
responsibilities.  Also  a  new  division  of  the  duties  between  the 
two  sides,  and  a  co-operation  to  an  extent  that  is  impossible 
under  the  philosophy  of  the  old  management.  And  even  all  of 
this  in  many  cases  could  not  exist,  without  the  help  of  mechanism 
which  has  been  gradually  developed.  It  is  no  single  element, 
but  rather  this  whole  combination  that  constitutes  Scientific 
Management. 

So  it  is  with  the  twelve  principles  of  Mr.  Emerson.  It  is  the 
combination  of  them  all,  applied  to  each  undertaking  that  pro- 
duces the  results.  For  convenience  sake,  we  will  list  these  prin- 
ciples and  their  application  to  the  subject  of  this  Chapter,  and 
outline  how  they  may  affect  the  whole  standard  of  housework. 

12  PRINCIPLES  APPLICATORY 

1.  Ideals.  One's  aim,  idea,  object,  or  purpose  in  Home- 

making  and  in  each  of  its  sub-divisions.     The 
clear  conception  of  the  meaning  of  home,  and 
the  practical  possibilities  of  realization.    A  plan 
of  organization  to  produce  this  "ideal." 
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SYSTEM    IN    HOUSEKEEPING 

2.  Common-       How  it  is  to  be  accomplished.     Consideration  of 
sense  and        the  resources — of  all  sorts — the  responsibilities, 
Judgment,     the  regulations,  and  the  realities. 

3.  Competent     The  best  available  information  and  instruction 
Counsel.          on  all  sides.    The  study  of  theory  and  the  com- 
parison of  practice.     Good  advice  and  sugges- 
tion.   In  short,  general  and  special  education. 

4.  Discipline.     A  positive  and  permanent  carrying  out  of  the 

plan  that  has  been  adopted.  The  following  of 
certain  rules  that  have  been  laid  down  for  the 
common  good  of  the  individual  and  the  group, 
and  the  harmonious  compliance  with  natural 
law. 

o.  The    Fair     To  live  and  let  live.     Fairness  and  freedom  in 
Deal.  all   things.     The   element   of  justice  tempered 

with  intelligent  understanding  and  co-operative 
sympathy.  The  each  for  all  and  all  for  each 
idea,  and  the  encouragement  of  every  such  spon- 
taneous response. 

6.  Records,        The  keeping,  gathering  and  making  of  all  rec- 

reliable,  im-    ords  that  may  in  any  way  simplify  the  running 

mediate,  ac-   of  the  home.    Books,  bills,  checks,  receipts,  card 

curate.  indexes,  score  cards,  catalogues,  addresses;  in 

short,  all  and  any  information  pertaining  to  the 

house,  the  family,  or  the  individual  member. 


7.  Planning        Next  to  the  first  principle,  this  one  is  perhaps 
and    Dis-      the  most  important.     Here  is  where  Time  and 
patching.       Motion-study  count.     Proper  routing  and  pur- 
chasing.    A  knowledge  of  what,  why,  and  how. 
The  use  of  instruction,  and  the  general  head- 
work  that  makes  for  production  and  the  easy 
running  of  the  home. 

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PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

8.  Standards      The  quality  of  work  is  considered  in  this  ele- 
and  sched-     ment.     The  skill  and  art  sense  with  which  it  is 
ides.  realized.     The  difference  between  schedule  and 

dispatching  is  that  the  former  is  a  bigger  and 
more  definite  outline;  the  latter  the  immediate 
accomplishment. 

9.  Standard-      The  construction  of  the  house,  the  furnishing, 
ized  Condi-    the  equipment,  utensils  and  devices.     The  mate- 
tions.  rials  and  tools  generally  are  associated  with  this 

principle.  The  environment,  and  the  status  of 
the  family  and  of  each  member  thereof.  The 
static  condition  of  all  things  considered,  which 
by  the  way  does  not  stay  put  for  a  moment,  but 
is  ever  progressing  toward  the  perfection  which 
is  never  reached  but  "ever  becoming." 

10.  Standard-    The  way  of  doing  things.     Action  and  move- 
ized  Opera-    ment.     Its  quality  and  its  cultivation.    Through 
tions.  this  principle  not  only  good  work  may  be  at- 
tained, but  personality  may  be  developed  into 
its    very    flower.     Greater    and    greater    skill. 
Higher  and  higher  reflex  result. 

11.  Written  It  is  the  business  and  desire  of  all  professions 
standard.  and  industries  to  give  to  the  world  the  result 
Practice  of  their   experiences,   research  and   inventions. 
Instruc-  Why  should  it  not  also  be  so  with  housework? 
tions.  History  and  records  of  home-making  would  be 

quite  as  valuable  to  humanity  and  civilization 
as  that  of  any  other  phase  of  life. 

12.  Efficiency.    Just   and   healthy   appreciation    of   all    effort. 
Reward.          "When  this  great  principle  of  reward  is  woven 

into  an  efficiency  struggle,  it  pushes  irresistibly 
upwards.  The  form  it  takes  is  not  essential, 
but  if  it  is  disregarded,  even  the  best  weary  of 
well-doing,"  says  Mr.  Emerson. 

Anyone  who  cares  to  give  careful,  thought  to  these  twelve 
principles    and  all  they  include,  cannot  fail  to  realize  the  vast- 

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SYSTEM    IN    HOUSEKEEPING 

ness  and  importance  of  their  meaning.  They  may  be  changed, 
far  better  applied,  or  more  clearly  illustrated,  but  the  fact  re- 
mains that  they  are  to  the  profession  of  home-making,  what  the 
multiplication-table  is  to  mathematics — a  standard  of  fact  and 
a  system  of  operation  that  alone  insures  and  encourages  the 
most  rapid  growth  compatible  with  one's  intelligence.  To 
master  these  twelve  principles  and  to  thoroughly  digest  their 
meaning,  and  act  upon  them,  is  a  guarantee  that  home-making 
will  progress  economically  and  productively.  It  may  be  slowly 
and  with  many  discouragements,  but  once  comprehended,  one 
can  never  neglect  or  forget  them.  They  are  as  fine  seed  sown 
in  fertile  soil.  The  natural  tendency  will  be  to  mature. 

The  Conservation  of  the  Home  is  clearly  the  business  of  the 
Modern  Woman,  and  Scientific  Management  is  we  believe  the 
only  comprehensive,  executive  plan  for  her  to  follow.  The 
only  technique  for  the  proper  accomplishment  of  this  end  is  to 
assiduously  practice  with  these  organized  elements  of  success, 
applying  them  not  only  to  the  home  and  family,  but  to  her  own 
individual  life.  Perhaps  the  greatest  field  of  production  yet  to 
be  opened  is  the  systematic  application  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment to  the  personal  life  of  man.  Its  possibilities  here  are 
incalculable. 


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CHAPTER    XVI 

SKILLED    LABOR 

"Labor  broad  as  the  earth,  has  its  summit  in  heaven" 

Among  the  many  thousand  letters  that  have  come  to  the 
Housekeeping  Station,  the  following  is  a  characteristic  sample 
of  a  number  received  from  house-maids  who  are  in  actual  serv- 
ice. Although  all  states  of  dissatisfaction  are  expressed,  from 
the  natural  discontent  of  having  had  too  much  done  for  them, 
or  rather,  the  result  of  unwise  privileges — which  is  a  common 
mistake — to  the  most  heartless  severity ;  this  one  has  been  se- 
lected, because  it  bespeaks  a  medium  sense  of  the  situation,  even 
though  the  writer  seems  to  feel  her  particular  misfortune  in  the 
kind  of  mistresses  selected : 

"MRS.  FRANK  A.  PATTISON: 

"Dear  Madam: — I  read  in  the  Bkly.  Times  the  other  morning 
how  you  and  some  clubwomen  are  trying  to  solve  the  servant  prob- 
lem And  it  is  about  time  some  you  ladies,  have  thought  of  the 
servants.  I  will  tell  you  how  solve  the  servant  problem,  as  I  am 
one  myself  and  have  had  several  experiences  with  some  family  and 
if  some  thing  would  be  done  for  us  who  have  to  slave  in  house- 
worck.  They  are  some  who  gives  us  more  work  than  we  should 
do  and  we  never  get  a  minute's  rest.  If  should  happen  to  see  sitting 
down  when  you  really  get  through  for  the  day  which  might  be 
about  nine  in  the  evening.  They  have  all  ways  some  thing  for  you 
to  do.  I  do  think  we  should  have  a  few  minutes  to  rest  as  any 
body  else.  The  other  things  are  for  instance  if  they  have  any 
thing  for  thir  meals  and  thurs  is  nothing  left  you  have  to  go  with 
out  any  thing  to  eat  after  a  hard  day's  work,  what  do  think  about 
that.  Your  simple  treated  like  a  little  poddle  dog  that's  the  way 
you  get  treated.  I  dont  think  it  should  be  done  we  are  human 
begins  and  made  by  the  lord  You  pre  not  to  share  any  thing  like  at 
all.  Only  in  the  kitchen  from  the  kitchen  to  attic  probly  not  a 
decent  bed  to  lay  your  tired  bones  on.  You  are  not  even  to  recive 
your  friend  in  the  house  for  instance.  Where  I  am  working  I  have 
to  receved  my  friend  on  the  moving  pictures  as  I  am  twenty-four 
years  old.  But  at  the  same  it  is  not  a  right  place  to  receive  your 

154 


SKILLED    LABOR 

comany,  and  are  many  girls  that  have  to  do  that  You  are  not 
even  allowed  to  talk  or  laugh  unless  it  is  above  a  whisper.  And  if 
you  should  laugh  loud,  you  are  told  it  is  not  your  house.  You 
are  simple  treated  like  if  you  were  nothing.  It  is  no  disgrace  if  we 
have  to  work  for  others.  But  ther  should  be  a  law  where  we  would 
be  treated  better  than  we  are.  It  makes  a  girl  discourage  some 
times  that  you  dont  know  what  to  do  with  you  self.  And  to  have 
less  hours  and  more  time  for  our  selves  and  then  it  would  makes  us 
feel  better  when  we  are  consider  something.  And  if  you  want 
to  go  any  where  you  have  to  beg  before  you  get.  What  life  is  it 
for  any  body  to  live  like  that  if  they  were  spoken  in  unkind  way  it 
would  hurt  feeling  terrible.  So  I  am  sending  a  idea  so  you  can 
solve  the  problem.  I  don't  mean  they  are  all  the  same.  I  never 
struck  a  good  kind  lady  yet.  I  hope  you  could  published  it  in  the 
evening  Journal  some  time  this  week  so  I  can  read  the  answerd  or 
what  you  think  about  it  as  I  will  very  interest  in  it.  I  favor  with 
Woman  Suffarated." 

Sent  by  A.  M. 

We  cannot  help  agreeing  with  this  poor  girl  that  "there 
should  be  a  law."  Perhaps  not  belonging  in  the  statute  books, 
but  at  least  in  the  social  order.  A  custom  and  standard  that 
would  regulate  the  hours,  the  treatment  and  the  work  of  house- 
servants.  Never,  since  the  beginning  of  the  world,  have  pri- 
vate employers  been  safe  and  humane  masters  as  a  class.  The 
joy  of  having  somebody  to  "cuff  and  kick,"  somebody  upon 
whom  to  throw  the  burden  of  the  day,  somebody  who  will  look 
up  to  one  in  admiration,  fear,  or  humble  need,  has  forever  been 
a  temptation  greater  than  human  weakness  could  rise  above, 
and  so  it  has  become  a  necessity  from  time  to  time  to  make 
public  questions  of  the  kind  and  form  of  private  relationship 
between  employer  and  employee,  and  settle  the  discontent  by 
law  or  through  organization. 

The  time  is  here  when  the  servant  girl  should  have  the 
thoughtful,  careful,  business-like  attention  of  economists,  psy- 
chologists and  educators  generally,  that  the  mistress  and  maid 
problem  may  be  solved — as  it  can  be — with  advantage  to  both 
employer  and  employee  for  it  is  a  question  not  only  of  human 
concern,  but  of  fundamental  social  and  national  importance. 
Even  though  a  very  small  percentage  of  people  employ  servants 
at  all,  the  standard  of  housework,  and  therefore  the  operation 

155 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

of  the  home  generally — the  family  demand  and  the  supply — 
largely  depend  upon  the  status  of  the  few  who  do  employ  them. 

While  we  have  a  wonderfully  live  interest  in  home  economic 
education  spreading  rapidly  over  the  country,  those  who  are 
graduated  in  this  course  are  not  our  house-workers.  The  schools 
and  colleges  contribute  writers  and  lecturers  on  the  subject 
from  a  variety  of  sides ;  teachers  and  institutional  managers, 
or  those  who  make  it  a  partial  occupation  or  avocation.  The 
student  of  engineering  goes  into  "the  works"  and  learns  how 
to  handle  every  part  of  the  machinery,  proving  his  knowledge 
by  completing  his  education  in  practice.  He  learns  to  master 
the  situation  step  by  step  until  finally  he  is  given  responsibility 
in  management  and  naturally  directs  a  plant  of  his  own.  Even 
so  it  should  be  with  the  house-worker.  After  graduation  she 
should  go  into  a  home  and  not  only  do  the  things  she  has 
learned  to  do,  in  actual  relation  with  the  family,  but  she  should 
have  the  practice  of  meeting  responsibility,  by  being  the  only 
one  upon  whom  the  running  of  the  house  depends.  A  month 
here,  or  a  month  there,  as  cook,  or  house-maid;  a  year  some- 
where else,  learning  to  meet  all  kinds  of  domestic  emergencies 
and  to  supply  all  sorts  of  domestic  needs,  is  surely  a  sane  and 
practical  program  for  the  would-be  home-manager,  which  posi- 
tion most  women  expect  some  day  to  suddenly  be  called  to  fill. 
The  old  way  of  training  the  daughters  by  looking  at  the  moth- 
er's ways  and  habits,  not  only  does  not  work  any  more,  but  it  is 
unscientific  in  the  extreme,  furnishing  at  best  but  a  rule-of- 
thumb  method  that  falls  from  under,  when  the  laboratory,  or 
real  principle,  is  applied;  and  in  point  of  fact  the  daughter 
finds  the  study  of  the  daily  duties  about  the  house  too  monoto- 
nous, menial  and  unattractive  generally,  to  hold  her  attention 
through  this  means,  so  that  while  we  have  a  large  number  of 
educated  home-economic  students  who  must  earn  their  living 
at  some  business  or  other,  and  a  very  much  larger  demand  for 
house-workers  than  is  even  numerically  met — efficiency  playing 
no  part — they  are  not  doing  housework,  simply  for  the  reason 
that  it  is  unstandardized  and  unorganized  and  does  not  appeal 
to  them  as  a  bearable  occupation. 

A  business  class  of  men  and  women  for  housework  purposes, 

156 


SKILLED    LABOR 

means  the  creating  of  a  demand  for  skilled  labor.  In  order  to 
develop  such  a  demand,  it  must  be  first  proved  that  it  would  be 
economic  in  practice.  While  everybody  knows  there  is  no  ele- 
ment in  industry  so  costly  as  cheap  and  ignorant  labor,  the 
housewife  frequently  goes  so  far  afield  in  methods  of  manage- 
ment as  not  only  to  be  ignorant  herself,  but  to  pay  high  wages 
for  ignorance  in  others. 

If  enough  people  could  be  persuaded  that  to  keep  the  win- 
dows, or  floors  of  a  house  clean,  the  furniture  or  metal  polished, 
the  clothes  spotless  and  mended,  the  rooms  in  order,  and  the 
cooking  healthfully  and  economically  attended  to;  that  the 
medium  of  experts  in  these  various  requirements  positively  pays 
in  dollars  and  cents,  and  at  the  end  of  the  year  would  give  a 
margin, — on  the  principle  of  supply  in  electric  current,  or  gas 
for  which  you  only  pay  for  the  actual  time  in  use, — public 
offices  would  shortly  be  opened  to  supply  skilled  labor  for  all 
home  needs  in  every  community  where  servants  are  now  kept. 

The  skilled  servant — and  there  are  many  of  them — would 
find  herself,  or  himself,  infinitely  better  off  if  employed  by  such 
a  bureau  or  corporation  of  labor.  Contracts  would  be  made 
with  the  head  of  the  bureau,  as  with  the  manager  or  superin- 
tendent of  a  responsible  institution,  and  not  with  the  workman 
as  now.  All  complaints,  orders  and  suggestions  would  be  re- 
ferred to  the  Head.  A  choice  as  to  the  personnel  of  the  work- 
man would  be  recognized  whenever  possible,  and  the  particular 
requirements  of  each  client,  or  customer,  would  be  considered, 
although  eccentricities  in  the  manner  of  doing  work  would  be 
discouraged,  as  there  is  but  one  best  way  of  doing  everything. 
Hours  of  service  could  readily  be  adjusted  as  regards  all  clean- 
ing, renovating,  laundrying  and  mending.  Nursing  or  child- 
attendance  where  there  are  small  children,  would  have  to  have 
special  attention  to  guarantee  the  supplying  of  an  attendant 
at  the  moment  required,  that  it  might  be  as  regular  and  de- 
pendable as  the  milkman's  visit  in  the  morning,  or  that  of  the 
baker  or  the  ice-man. 

Professional  playmates  could  be  furnished  at  short  notice; 
young  girls  who  would  help  children  to  play  in  a  constructive 
way,  skilled  in  telling  stories  and  who  would  encourage  little 

157 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

dramatic  or  kindergarten  efforts.  Again,  there  is  no  particular 
reason  why  a  day  nursery  should  be  confined  to  the  children 
of  the  poor.  A  children's  house,  or  room,  might  be  a  part 
of  every  community,  where  a  child  could  be  sent  with  profit 
to  the  little  one.  This  might  even  be  established  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Bureau. 

The  professional  child  nurse  is  already  with  us.  The  dif- 
ference would  be  that  she  need  not  necessarily  have  her  three 
meals  and  sleep  under  the  same  roof  with  her  charge.  She 
might,  or  might  not,  as  the  need  determined.  But  it  should 
be  possible  for  any  mother  requiring  help  in  the  care  of  her 
child,  to  be  able  to  call  a  skilled  person  when  needed  and  feel 
reasonably  sure  that  the  child  would  be  better  off  for  having 
come  in  contact  with  such  a  helper.  Something  she  cannot  feel 
assured  now  with  the  average  nurse-girl. 

As  to  cooking,  serving,  and  dishwashing.  The  many  vari- 
eties of  devices  of  the  fireless  cooker  type,  thermos  and  thermal 
bottles,  jars,  jugs,  and  dishes,  heating  and  cooling  cabinets, 
etc.,  make  it  a  practical  plan  to  have  meals  prepared  hours 
in  advance  and  kept  perfectly  well  until  the  time  desired.  Even 
the  serving  can  be  minimized  by  helping  one's  self  from  the 
nearest  possible  point  of  placement,  which  may  be  at  the  table, 
or  just  outside  in  the  butler's  pantry.  This  would  adapt  itself 
to  a  buffet  form  of  serving,  or  the  using  of  a  table  and  dumb- 
butler  as  incorporated  at  the  Station.  Ingenuity  and  inven- 
tion has  not  begun  to  spend  itself  here,  and  fashion  also  is  ever 
ready  to  lend  a  ready  hand. 

But  the  elimination  of  the  waitress  is  not  the  idea.  One 
could  engage  half  a  dozen,  or  more,  if  one  chose,  skilled  to 
requirement,  even  to  the  extent  of  providing  music  and  the 
dance  between  the  courses,  or  anything  else  that  might  meet 
the  custom  of  society.  They  would  not  be  servants,  however, 
in  the  old  sense,  but  professional  aids  in  service.  Skilled  work- 
ers in  this  particular  department,  living  under  their  own  roof 
as  professional  nurses  now  live,  feeding  themselves,  and  com- 
ing to  their  post  as  any  other  business  girl  goes  to  her  occu- 
pation. 

Where  the  least  service   is   demanded,  the   dishes    could  be 

158 


SKILLED    LABOR 

placed  in  the  dishwashing  machine,  to  await  the  coming  of 
the  morning  assistant.  The  food  in  the  food  cupboard,  or  ice- 
box, and  the  table  made  ready  for  the  next  meal  in  the  short- 
est possible  space  of  time. 

You  may  say:  why  so  change  our  present  habits  and  cus- 
toms? Why  the  confusion  of  all  these  different  workers  com- 
ing into  the  house,  and  the  expense  of  establishing  such  a 
corporation  of  labor,  and  paying  the  prices  that  would  be  de- 
manded by  skilled  people  ?  Our  answer  is :  we  are  already  pay- 
ing unwarrantedly  high  prices  to  labor,  for  the  privilege  of 
living  in  our  own  homes.  Wages,  rental,  heat,  light,  food, 
breakage  and  waste  bring  the  average  cost  per  hour  for  the 
general  housework  girl  from  twenty  to  thirty  cents  every  hour 
in  the  day,  proving  that  from  fifty  to  eighty  cents  an  hour 
might  be  paid  with  profit  for  the  skilled  labor  employed  for  a 
limited  number  of  hours. 

The  expense  of  establishing  the  Bureau  would  be  readily 
borne  by  any  capital  awaiting  investment,  just  so  soon  as  a 
proper  demand  arrives,  or  by  a  co-operative  stock  company 
of  those  interested  to  have  such  labor  available.  Even  by  a 
City  itself,  where  one  is  found  to  be  sufficiently  advanced  and 
progressively  governed. 

The  confusion  and  uncertainty  of  the  different  workers  com- 
ing into  a  house  at  different  hours,  would  be  infinitely  less  than 
that  now  in  vogue,  of  following  up  each  servant  to  see  that  he 
or  she  does  the  work  as  one  would  have  it  done,  keeping  their 
tools  and  premises  in  repair,  supervising  and  supplying  the 
servants'  table,  adjusting  their  differences,  taking  the  moral 
responsibility  of  their  welfare  as  members  of  the  family  and 
the  psychological  strain  of  living  day  after  day  and  month 
after  month  in  the  house  with  the  same  inefficient  and  unrelated 
social  element.  //  one  is  lucky  enough  to  have  them  stay,  which 
is  the  most  confusing  point  of  all,  inasmuch  as  constant  chang- 
ing of  servants  has  become  a  necessity,  statistics  from  intelli- 
.gence  offices  having  convinced  us  that  the  average  length  of 
time  a  servant  stops  in  one  place  is  two  weeks.  So  that  a  mat- 
ter of  change  is  not  so  much  a  choice  as  a  necessity. 

There  is  a  "Servant  problem"  with  us,  that  must  be  met 

159 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

by  servant  and  mistress  alike.  The  latter  by  the  home-maker 
studying  more  closely  the  science,  the  art  and  the  practice  of 
managing  a  home  on  an  efficient  basis.  Studying  and  applying 
domestic  engineering  in  all  its  branches,  and  realizing  that 
skilled  labor  is  merely  intelligent  labor,  that  can  accomplish 
in  shorter  and  shorter  time,  a  higher  and  higher  standard  or 
quality  of  work,  under  progressively  better  conditions  and 
more  economic  rates,  when  summed  up  over  a  long  space  of 
time.  For  whether  it  be  the  scrubbing  of  a  floor,  or  the  wash- 
ing of  a  window,  if  it  is  done  intelligently,  under  the  best 
standard,  it  will  not  only  look  better  and  involve  less  waste, 
but  will  actually  keep  clean  longer.  The  floor  that  is  cared  for 
in  such  a  way  as  to  minimize  the  need  for  scrubbing;  that  has 
fewer  people  constantly  tramping  upon  it  and  is  so  constructed 
as  to  draw  attention  to  its  beauty  and  order,  does  much  to 
reduce  the  shiftless,  careless,  sloppy  manner  of  working  so 
common  among  the  ordinary  class  of  houseworkers,  where  one 
frequently  finds  girls  who  think  it  necessary  to  take  to  their 
hands  and  knees  and  scrub  the  entire  kitchen  with  strength  and 
vigor  at  least  once  a  day,  thereby  proving  that  much  time  is 
wasted  in  service  of  this  sort.  In  many  homes  the  floor  of  the 
kitchen  might  be  magnificent,  if  the  price  of  such  wasted  labor 
could  be  in  time  applied  to  the  original  cost.  And  so  this  com- 
parison holds  all  the  way  through.  The  results  of  the  experi- 
ments at  the  Housekeeping  Station  in  this  kind  of  comparative 
cost  with  every  department  of  the  home,  has  proved  that  the 
saving  of  ignorant  and  unnecessary  labor  and  waste  will  easily 
pay  for  standard  conditions  and  equipment  throughout. 

And  as  to  the  servant,  instead  of  our  being  her  enemy,  as 
she  at  first  believed  "The  Station"  to  be,  its  effort  is  her  best 
friend  and  future  salvation,  for  it  encourages  the  use  of  the 
finest  housework  equipment  and  tools  that  can  be  made,  and 
the  necessity  of  having  the  most  perfect  kitchen  arrangements 
that  can  be  installed.  It  would  abolish  all  drudgery  and  long 
hours  of  labor  by  condensing  into  an  eight-hour  day  at  least, — 
through  scientific  management, — all  that  is  essential  of  the 
sometimes  sixteen-hour  demand.  It  would  give  freedom  and 
self-respect  to  the  general  housework  girl  who  suffers  now 

160 


SKILLED    LABOR 

under  an  unjust  social  stigma,  by  giving  her  a  home  of  her 
own,  where  independence,  or  a  certain  community  club-life  might 
be  enjoyed,  such  as  is  now  the  privilege  of  the  trained  nurse, 
and  by  releasing  her  from  that  ancient  and  slave-life  form  of 
contract,  that  brings  her  into  the  family  by  the  month  with  all 
her  time  mortgaged.  In  other  words,  it  would  eliminate  from 
society  that  unfair  caste  distinction  existing  as  the  Servant- 
class,  classify  the  houseworkers  as  to  their  ability,  and  merit 
ushering  into  other  fields  those  not  adapted  to  standard  prac- 
tice in  this  line  of  employment,  and  bring  into  being  a  class  of 
skilled  business-like  workers  going  to  their  special  appoint- 
ments, as  a  clerk  to  his  office,  responsible  only  for  the  particu- 
lar work  assigned,  and  in  a  position  to  earn  far  more  money 
than  when  confined  to  but  one  house.  The  only  need  being  to 
prove  as  can  readily  be  done  by  most  of  the  servants  now  so 
employed,  and  many  outside  the  class  who  would  work  in  this 
new  way,  that  there  is  at  least  one  thing  that  he  or  she  can 
and  would  like  to  do  better  than  anything  else,  and  so  by 
showing  efficiency  in  this  chosen  subject  and  honesty  of  pur- 
pose, make  a  new  future  on  a  skilled  labor  basis  for  the  most 
important,  the  most  all-inclusive,  and  the  most  beautiful  occu- 
pation in  the  world — Housework  that  is  home-making. 


161 


CHAPTER    XVII 

STANDARDIZATION 

"The  mind's  the  standard  of  the  man" 

While  the  word  standardization  is  a  formidable  one  and 
somewhat  technical  in  sound,  its  meaning  is  extremely  simple. 
It  merely  implies  knowing  what  to  do,  understanding  why  it 
should  be  done,  and  being  skilled  in  how  best  to  accomplish  it. 
There  have  always  been  those  who  have  practiced  with  infinite 
pains  to  make  perfect  the  way  of  arriving  at  the  highest  avail- 
able standards,  and  yet  conditions  are  never  quite  the  same, 
and  a  new  start  with  new  ideas  and  new  material  is  ever  one's 
privilege  and  duty. 

To  get  results,  to  "make  good,"  to  meet  every  emergency, 
and  to  make  an  opportunity  of  every  obstacle,  is  the  only  road 
to  achievement. 

"To  get  away  with  the  goods,"  as  the  saying  goes,  is  a  tem- 
porary and  transient,  if  not  a  questionable,  kind  of  accomplish- 
ment. 

The  scientific  and  standardized  effort  to  master  every  detail 
of  the  situation,  to  start  at  the  bottom  and  carefully  study 
each  element  in  the  process,  working  in  the  appointed  way  until 
a  new  and  better  manner  of  procedure  is  evolved  and  finally 
combining  all  the  best  ways  of  the  various  parts  in  an  effective 
working  unit,  with  each  factor  definitely  placed,  is  the  one 
lasting  and  profitable  method  that  makes  the  man,  as  well  as 
the  world,  move  on  to  bigger  things.  And  without  scientific 
practice  in  how  best  to  move  on  in  this  rapid  age,  one  is  cer- 
tainly going  to  be  left  behind  in  the  race  sooner  or  later,  dis- 
couraged and  hopeless,  if  not  in  worse  plight. 

One  of  the  difficulties  with  the  home,  as  we  find  it,  is  its 
lack  of  a  definite  aim.  It  has  not  gone  ahead  as  swiftly  as  other 
enterprises  with  which  it  is  associated  because  of  the  absence  of 
a  sufficiently  forceful  ideal.  It  has  been  the  victim  of  a  fast 

162 


STANDARDIZATION 

developing  business  world  that  has  taken  the  better  part  of 
house  labor  and  initiative,  and  left  in  turn  a  serious  depression 
in  the  scale  of  available  home-capital  and  comfort. 

The  American  girl  can  no  longer  trust  to  luck  at  not  seeing 
the  time  when  she  need  cook  a  dinner,  or  clean  a  room,  for  she 
will  probably  have  to  do  both,  and  frequently,  before  labor 
and  capital  are  at  peace,  and  the  "servant  problem"  becomes  a 
thing  of  the  past. 

Does  it  not  behoove  her,  therefore,  of  all  ages  to  face  the 
situation  with  some  effective  tool  at  her  command,  such,  for  in- 
stance, as  we  find  the  system  of  Scientific  Management?  Apply 
the  principles  of  Efficiency  to  every  department  of  the  house 
and  bring  it  up  to  the  standard  of  the  best  known  practice  in 
each  line. 

While  it  may  not  be  the  business  of  every  woman  to  run 
a  home,  the  study  and  use  of  Efficiency  standards  is  unques- 
tionably of  the  greatest  service  in  any  occupation,  or  even  in 
one's  personal  movements  and  thought,  for  after  all,  the  mind 
makes  or  breaks  the  life,  and  the  habit  of  thought  that  is 
standardized  to  orderly  and  constructive  action,  operating 
around  a  well-conceived  ideal,  and  moving  always  upon  defi- 
nitely defined  principles,  with  a  clear  knowledge  of  the  parts 
and  their  relation  to  each  other,  is  well  worth  in  any  field  any 
effort  it  may  cost. 

The  standardization  of  the  home  begins  when  one  has  a 
psychological  vision  of  just  what  a  home  should  be,  and  what 
it  is  possible  to  make  it  in  each  case.  It  is  the  realization  of 
the  kind  of  atmosphere  and  surroundings  that  will  unques- 
tionably produce  the  best  citizens  and  the  happiest  folk  gen- 
erally. It  is  the  practice  of  moulding  conditions  in  such  a 
way  as  to  make  for  unity  and  mutual  love  in  each  day's  hap- 
penings of  the  family  life.  This,  as  the  great  purpose,  is 
brought  about  not  by  chance,  or  even  by  instinct  in  these 
days,  but  by  holding  fast  to  the  idea  that  it  can  be  done  if  one 
only  knows  how,  and  then  by  being  willing  to  "knuckle  to"  and 
learn,  by  doing. 

A  persevering  and  ambitious  man  of  ordinary  talent  has  been 
known  to  build  up  a  great  and  prosperous  business  industry, 

163 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

starting  with  but  five  dollars.  Simply  by  knowing  what  he 
wanted  to  do  and  having  an  absorbing  reason  for  doing  it,  and 
being  keenly  anxious  to  learn  the  how  of  each  factor  from  the 
very  first  step,  making  every  dollar  guarantee  a  full  return 
for  its  use. 

The  same  motive  in  action  is  applied  where  the  efficiency 
system  is  used  to  standardize  a  home.  The  scientific  way  of 
doing  everything,  and  the  scientific  training  of  the  workman, 
is  brought  about  by  the  scientific  selection  or  adaptation  of  the 
workman,  and  then  a  perfect  co-operation  of  mind, — or  man- 
agement,— with  body, — or  application. 

The  home  has  gone  too  far  afield  in  its  belief  in  tradition, 
its  artificiality,  its  hectic  desire  for  luxury,  and  its  absorption 
in  detail,  at  the  expense  of  a  great  definite  motive  rooted  in 
the  real  and  vital  purposes  of  home  and  individual  life.  We 
must  go  back  to  the  source,  deep  into  the  heart  of  things,  and 
find  an  ever  new  reason  for  daily  routine,  if  we  would  not  have 
it  sink  to  the  deadly  level  of  unlovely  happenings.  Fortunately 
this  can  be  done,  and,  by  that  definite  plan  of  action  known  as 
Scientific  Management.  A  system, — to  sum  it  up  again, — that 
has  gathered  together  all  the  elements  of  the  past  that  have 
made  for  success  in  human  undertaking,  classified  and  analyzed 
them,  proved  their  worth  in  practice,  and  simplified  them  into 
a  working  form  for  the  common  understanding  of  the  multitude, 
so  that  ultimate  success  may  be  the  fate  of  the  many,  instead  of 
the  highly  gifted  few.  It  is  a  study  that  makes  for  the  devel- 
opment of  thought  and  industry,  including,  as  it  does,  the 
whole  man  in  contact  with  every  variety  of  material.  A  knowl- 
edge of  values,  and  the  purpose  of  every  undertaking,  must 
follow  closely  in  line  with  all  effort  to  standardize  conditions 
and  operations.  Looked  at  from  this  studied  point  of  view,  one 
can  readily  see  that  the  Spring  house-cleaning  time  of  the  mod- 
ern home  would  take  on  a  somewhat  different  meaning.  To 
change  the  atmosphere,  by  adjusting  and  renovating  the  en- 
vironment, has  always  been  the  allowed  purpose  of  this  annual 
•feast ,  but  to  create  a  new  atmosphere,  standardized  to  the  high- 
est individuality  of  the  home,  and  brought  about  by  seeing  to 
it  that  conditions,  equipment,  material,  operations  and  results 

164 


STANDARDIZATION 

are  harmoniously  adjusted  to  the  real  welfare  of  the  family 
and  the  community  of  which  it  is  a  part,  is  a  performance  that 
cannot  safely  be  left  to  the  happening  of  once  a  year,  or  to 
the  sole  guidance  of  one  member  of  the  household,  but  must  for 
the  sake  of  progress  and  well-being  be  the  joyous  function  of 
the  entire  group.  A  delightful  and  perpetual  operation. 

Art  and  instinct  tell  us  that  everything  one  touches  and 
everything  one  uses  and  sees,  should  be  beautiful.  There  is  no 
more  reason  for  an  ugly,  or  unrightly  made  tool  or  house- 
hold fixture,  than  there  is  for  the  building  of  an  ugly  chimney, 
or  the  modeling  of  an  unlovely  vase.  Use  and  beauty  should 
not  occasionally  go  hand  in  hand,  but  should  be  inseparable 
household  elements.  Art  will  not  have  come  into  its  own,  until 
it  is  made  not  common-place,  but  generally  appreciated;  until 
it  means  an  inspiration  to  everybody  to  create  what  ought  to  be 
from  what  is.  Until  it  is  a  working  factor  in  every  man's  life. 
Until  we  all  become  artists,  and  the  home  is  moulded  into  the 
permanent  and  beautiful  cradle  of  modern  art.  And  as  the 
child  moves  from  its  cradle  enough  to  ask  the  why  of  life,  the 
simple  philosophy  of  the  home  should  be  able  to  answer,  and 
it  will,  if  proper  thought  is  given  to  the  great  why  of  each 
separate  step.  The  reason  of  things  is  not  "because,"  and 
"just  because,"  as  many  women  think,  but  will  be  found  through 
feeling  deep  down  in  the  heart  of  the  happening,  where  the  soul 
knows  by  contact — and  not  through  foolish  argument.  And 
here  again  the  home  should  play  a  most  important  role,  for 
nothing  ought  to  be  incorporated  and  nothing  therein  done  that 
cannot  stand  the  test  of  why.  To  "flounder  in  reasons" — No — 
but  rather  to  know  all  sides  by  placing  one's  self  in  the  midst 
and  intuitively  knowing  the  truth  to  the  uttermost  parts. 

A  thought  as  to  the  philosophy  of  washing  on  Monday, 
would  give  many  a  woman  a  happier  and  more  peaceful  Sab- 
bath. 

And  how  should  the  home  be  run?  Science  has  told  us  in 
almost  every  detail.  It  is  no  longer  an  imitation  standard  of 
the  way  others  do  it,  but  an  original  output,  based  upon  re- 
search and  standard  practice  instructions.  Every  theory  and 
working  idea  that  is  developed  in  the  world  at  large,  is  avail- 

165 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

able  for  the  home,  for  every  one  of  these  goes  from,  and  comes 
back  into  some  home.  Our  mission  as  home-makers  is  but  to 
adapt  them  to  our  use,  and  add  as  we  will  of  our  own.  But 
even  after  science  has  told  us  how,  there  is  a  business-like 
manner  that  must  be  added;  a  form  of  order  and  movement 
that  is  pregnant  with  confidence  and  ease,  with  time  enough  for 
the  proper  completion  of  each  detail  and  a  true  vision  always 
of  the  one  thing  at  hand  to  be  achieved.  These  four  essential 
corner-stones  of  the  house  mean  a  roof  builded  for  the  blessing 
of  Heaven.  For  after  all  the  "Best  laid  plans  of  mice  and 
men"  miscarry,  when  "God  disposes."  A  devotion,  therefore, 
to  the  Plan  of  Him  who  made  us,  and  a  willingness  to  abide 
by  whatever  comes,  knowing  it  is  for  us  the  very  best  thing, 
makes  the  four  sides  hold  together  in  an  everlasting  structure 
of  infinite  worth,  operating  through  standard  human  practice 
and  standardized  to  a  sense  of  an  ever-present  religion,  that 
cannot  fail  to  prove  itself  a  shelter  in  every  storm.  As  Emer- 
son says : 

"Let  religion  cease  to  be  occasional ;  and  the  pulses  of  thought 
that  go  to  the  borders  of  the  universe,  let  them  proceed  from 
the  bosom  of  the  Household." 

As  family  sentiment  broadens  to  community  betterment  and 
local  clannish  sentiment  into  national  fellowship,  so  will  the  home 
become  not  only  the  haven  of  peace  for  the  individual,  but  the 
starting  point  of  a  practical  peace  for  the  world. 


166 


PART  II 
THE  PERSONAL  HOME 


"A  home  is  a  spot  apart  from  the  world's  tempestuous  strife; 
'Tis  the  one  great  throbbing  heart  wherein  is  born  new  life; 
"Pis  the  place  where  love  divine  should  reign  supreme  with  yours 

and  mine. 

Behind  its  portals  must  contentment  dwellf 
And  through  its  open  windows  tell 
That  joy  and  peace  abide  within. 
'Twas  thus  decreed  when  God  made  man 
And  moulded  woman  as  his  kindred  soulf 
That  the  two  might  live  and  lead  the  world 
Toward  love  of  life  at  home." 

M.  C.  N. 


CHAPTER  I 

PERSONAL  FREEDOM 

"The  road  to  human  Freedom  is  by   way  of  responsibility  " 

If  it  be  true  that  man's  body  and  mind  are  moulded  by  two 
influences,  heredity  and  environment,  it  is  doubly  certain  that 
the  one  important  element  that  makes  for  a  right  or  wrong 
mould  is  individual  initiative.  Although  this  has  been  vaguely 
recognized  from  the  beginning  of  time,  its  freedom  of  action 
has  been  curtailed  by  a  variety  of  influences.  Among  which, 
was  the  ancient  custom  of  parental  authority  that  commanded 
how  a  child  should  think,  act  and  live  generally.  The  idea  being 
that  experience  and  wisdom  might  be  handed  down  as  a  com- 
modity, or  cloak,  to  save  and  protect  the  younger  generation 
from  the  faults  and  failures  of  those  gone  before.  This  kind 
of  discipline,  however,  not  only  did  not  supply  the  personal  need 
for  experience  on  one's  own  account,  but  it  raised  an  army  of 
young  despots  who  in  turn  used  their  authority  to  command, 
right  and  left,  keeping  the  same  sort  of  semblance  of  ethical 
order  by  dictating  in  turn  what  should  and  what  should  not  be 
allowed,  even  naming  the  length,  location  and  character  of  the 
line  of  conduct  that  should  be  made  the  rule  for  each ;  a  kind  of 
personal  action  by  force.  Then  the  reaction  came,  when  time 
had  proved  this  method  intolerable  and  ineffectual,  and  the  child 
was  allowed  to  wander  freely  in  its  own  environment.  Parental 
sternness  and  the  rod  were  cast  aside,  and  the  liberty  of  license 
in  many  cases  took  its  place.  No  restraint  and  no  particular 
self-control  were  encouraged,  until  lacking  in  firmness  and  self- 
respect,  the  young  folk  had  no  semblance  of  respect,  or  rever- 
ence for  anything  else.  Extreme  self-will  seemed  to  take  the 
place  of  fear  of  parental  wrath  and  was  little  better  in  result. 
Fortunately  we  are  at  the  present  entering  a  period  when  both 
the  severity  method  and  the  young  "do-as-I-please"  air,  are 
giving  way  to  saner  thought  and  better  feeling. 

The  discipline  of  to-day  is  to  rightly  adjust  one's  self  to  one's 

171 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

own  surroundings  through  a  proper  study  of  environment.  To 
know  the  meaning  of  things,  to  feel  one's  self  a  part  of  them, 
to  understand  conditions  well  enough  to  want  to  make  them 
better,  and  to  realize  that  responsibility  is  the  substance  of 
which  freedom  and  individuality  are  made.  This  sort  of  dis- 
cipline that  begins  with  the  infant  and  extends  throughout  life, 
is  limited  to  no  age,  or  office,  sex,  or  position ;  but  is  established 
as  the  natural  law  of  obedience  for  parent  and  child  alike,  with 
exchange  of  confidence  and  a  mutual  interest  in  all  the  daily 
events.  A  sort  of  attitude  that  brings  together  the  young  life 
and  the  grown-up,  as  no  other  age  has  brought  them  together, 
and  gives  sense  and  vision  of  what  is  really  meant  by  "Free- 
dom," in  actual  practice. 

There  seems  to  be  little  or  no  doubt  abroad  as  to  the  prime 
merit  and  natural  order  of  the  family  group.  The  manner  of 
its  existence  has  been  the  cause  of  controversy,  not  the  reason, 
for  it  has  passed  through  the  period  when  too  much  seemed  to 
refer  to,  or  be  a  part  of,  the  father;  to  that  pathetic  age  when 
the  burden  of  the  whole  seemed  to  fall  upon  the  light  and  un- 
prepared shoulders  of  the  mother;  still  on  to  the  time  when  it 
was  declared  the  Family,  and  therefore  the  home  exists  for  the 
child,  and  back  to  the  original  meaning  in  which  the  family  was 
declared  to  exist  for  the  good  of  the  family  and  the  welfare  of 
other  families. 

In  this  sense  it  is  the  individual  members  that  are  important, 
old  and  young,  weak  and  strong,  male  and  female,  and  the 
ideal  family  is  the  one  in  which  all  are  given  an  equal  chance 
of  freedom,  through  the  best  opportunity  for  development,  but 
we  must  get  it  out  of  our  heads  that  development  stops  at  any 
appointed  age,  or  time;  school  age,  parent  age,  or  at  the 
grandparent  time  even.  Years  are  not  counted,  until  one  has 
nothing  else  to  count.  Development  does  not  stop  until  one's 
initiative  has  gone,  until  one  gives  up  all  sense  of  responsibility, 
all  pleasure  in  study  and  any  hearty  effort  to  improve  condi- 
tions, and  takes  no  further  joy  in  progress  or  maturity,  but 
becomes  a  form  of  human  parasite  that  is  not  only  unhealthy 
but  immoral,  a  heavy  burden  upon  somebody.  The  right 
kind  of  independence  developed  in  the  very  young,  the  kind  that 

172 


PERSONAL    FREEDOM 

knows  how  to  take  care  of  itself  by  virtue  of  practice  in,  and 
understanding  of,  the  surroundings,  would  do  much  toward 
eliminating  that  great  dependent  class  that  grows  more  and 
more  helpless  in  the  face  of  obstacles.  As  long  as  mothers  take 
pleasure  in  making  helpless  babies  of  their  children  for  the 
sake  of  coddling  and  a  selfish  joy,  so  long  we  will  have  boys 
and  girls  who  depend  upon  mother, — or  somebody  else, — for 
every  strenuous  effort ;  and  upon  society  to  give  them  a  living 
after  the  obligation  of  parent  is  stopped;  and  grandparents, 
who  will  feel  their  lack  of  resourcefulness  and  therefore  depend 
upon  someone  other  than  themselves,  to  keep  them  happy.  So 
important  is  this  sense  of  personal  independence  throughout 
life's  program,  that  it  seems  to  the  writer  as  if  all  forms  of 
dependence  of  whatsoever  character,  should  be  eliminated,  even 
at  the  cost  of  a  certain  species  of  happiness,  or  of  social  con- 
flict. The  dependent  wife  is  many  degrees  less  efficient  and  less 
happy  than  the  one  who  has  been  made  to  feel  she  is  responsible 
for  herself,  her  own  manager,  and  her  own  master.  The  wife 
who  must  run  to  her  husband  with  each  question  to  settle,  who 
fears  his  decision  of  her  every  act,  whether  it  be  the  purchase 
of  a  new  veil,  or  the  donation  of  a  gift,  is  not  the  woman  who 
is  going  to  meet  the  emergency  of  life's  lessons  and  conditions, 
with  anything  like  the  resources  at  her  command  that  are  a  part 
of  the  courageous  temperament  of  her,  in  whom  independence 
has  been  developed  and  established  from  the  beginning.  And 
the  man  who  would  make  of  his  wife  a  dependent  darling,  is  as 
selfishly  inclined,  as  the  woman  who  would  keep  her  children  in 
"that  sweet  baby  age"  for  an  undue  period.  The  way  out  in 
each  case,  of  course,  is  a  form  of  education  that  has  as  its  aim 
self-government  and  personal  freedom  in  all  things;  not  as  the 
result  of  independent  fortune,  or  the  whimsical  following  of 
one's  own  temper  in  each  day's  acts,  but  the  inevitable  outcome 
of  a  sense  of  personal  responsibility  encouraged  through  a 
knowledge  of  the  simple  working  of  law, — natural,  political, 
social,  and  psychological.  Sooner  or  later  every  human  being 
must  "go  it  alone,"  as  it  were ;  must  be  thrown  upon  his  or  her 
own  resources.  How  much  wiser  then,  and  kinder  in  every  way 
to  prepare  each  for  what  is  to  come. 

173 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

The  encouragement  of  personal  freedom,  or  personal  inde- 
pendence, and  its  right  use,  seems  therefore  to  the  writer  to  be 
the  object  of  family  life;  life  that  is  worth  to  the  little  group 
just  what  it  is  worth  to  the  individual  members  of  the  group. 
The  sum  total  of  independence  and  human  efficiency  that  can  be 
produced  is  the  substance  from  which  a  real  kind  of  domestic 
happiness  and  loyalty  spring.  It  should  therefore  be  the  am- 
bition of  each  family  unit  "to  live  and  let  live."  To  be  free 
and  independent  in  the  control  of  one's  life,  one's  time,  and 
one's  self,  with  the  one  provision  definitely  established  that 
such  freedom  shall  not  interfere  with  the  like  freedom  of  an- 
other. The  law  of  the  land  is  binding :  One  must  act  and  move 
according  to  rule  in  the  work-a-day  world,  going  to  the  right 
and  the  left  as  custom  dictates.  How  necessary  it  is  then  that 
the  proper  kind  of  understanding  of  such  law  and  thereby  a 
ready  co-operation  therein,  shall  be  a  part  of  each  one's  train- 
ing in  the  home.  To  be  forced  to  do  what  is  not  one's  sym- 
pathetic inclination,  is  worse  than  half  doing  one's  duty,  for  it 
makes  rebellion  and  weakness ;  but  to  feel  free  to  choose  the 
right,  or  the  left,  and  have  every  grain  of  common  sense  and 
appropriate  knowledge  inclined  toward  the  right,  is  to  estab- 
lish a  strength  and  a  joy  in  the  choosing,  that  ends  in  the 
pleasure  of  co-operation  and  brings  forth  a  kind  of  individual 
initiative  that  is  strong  for  action  and  productive  of  more  than 
mere  existence.  Heredity  and  environment  both  give  way  under 
its  vital  and  plastic  influence  and  life  becomes  more  than  the 
driver  and  the  driven.  There  is  a  pleasure  attached  to  the 
journey  from  start  to  finish,  that  results  from  taking  the  road 
of  one's  own  choice,  intelligently  co-operating  with  conditions, 
assuming  the  responsibility  of  the  crowd,  and  yet  seeing  to  it 
that  each  individual  is  free  and  independent  to  progress  in  his 
or  her  own  chosen  way. 


174 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    ORGANIZATION    OF    THE    FAMILY 

"Nothing  endures  but  personal  qualities  " 

It  is  said  that  the  natural  instinct  toward  individuality,  and 
the  reproduction  of  the  species,  are  opposing  forces. 

Let  us  look  to  the  spirit  of  the  family  and  see  if  it  not  only 
proves  them  complimentary,  but  dependent  upon  each  other 
for  proper  vitality  and  expression. 

Individuality  is  having  a  character  all  one's  own.  Not  as- 
sumed for  oddities'  sake,  but  the  result  of  a  central  motive  in 
feeling,  to  which  everything  else  is  related,  and  from  which 
everything  springs.  The  native  desire  to  extend  one's  self  into 
a  larger  sense  of  feeling,  to  be  related  to  more  points  of  contact, 
and  to  develop  outwardly,  even  though  it  be  in  but  a  limited 
way,  ends  in  what  is  called  the  reproduction  of  one's  self,  but  in 
reality  is  it  not  a  more  perfect  fulfillment  of  the  sense  of 
individuality?  The  wise  parent  does  not  live  in  his  or  her  chil- 
dren, but  rather  by  virtue  of  having  the  children  to  live  with,  by 
the  extension  of  self  into  a  larger  form  of  sympathy  which  is 
rather  opposed  to  the  idea  of  both  sacrifice  and  duty;  two 
much-overworked  virtues  kept  in  the  foreground  where  the 
general  thought  prevails  that  parents  give  up  their  life  when 
the  children  come.  When,  instead  of  giving  up,  by  the  putting 
of  one's  self  into  another,  through  the  producing  of  another,  it 
is,  or  ought  to  be,  the  larger  self,  seeking  fuller  expression, 
unfolding  into  higher  form,  ready  to  die  if  need  be  that  this 
larger  self  may  survive. 

This  is  the  family  looked  at  from  an  enlightened-selfish  and 
homogeneous  standpoint,  each  seeking,  and  allowed  full  sway 
for  individual  development,  each  with  the  feeling  of  the  whole, 
related  at  all  points  and  forming  through  contact  a  more 
definite  individuality  for  each,  with  the  unit  of  the  family  as  the 
larger  order  of  individual. 

175 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

Considered  from  this  angle  the  human  family  group  becomes 
more  than  a  simple  happening  to  be  cared  for,  as  Nature  cares 
for  the  birds,  or  flowers.  Its  well-being  depends  upon  its  con- 
scious and  orderly  organization,  and  the  higher  and  more  defi- 
nite the  organized  effort,  the  more  advanced  and  useful  the 
family  becomes.  All  organization,  just  as  all  individuality, 
must  center  about  one  idea,  or  purpose,  if  it  would  be  effective 
and  interesting,  and  the  family  no  less,  should  root  itself  in  an 
ideal  or  object  of  common  understanding  and  sympathy;  this 
may  be  whatsoever  one  wills,  the  thing  that  is  determined  by 
force  of  circumstances,  or  the  thing  that  one  determines  by 
family  volition;  whatever  it  is,  it  should  enlist  the  active  sup- 
port of  each  and  every  member  of  the  little  group. 

As  the  making  of  the  home  is  our  subject,  and  as  this  is  the 
logical  and  psychical  interest  of  all  families,  let  us  briefly  illus- 
trate the  point  in  question  by  centering  the  family  in  the 
thought  of  its  upkeep,  and  the  joy  of  home  possession. 

If  every  child  could  be  made  to  feel  that  the  home  was  his 
and  hers  to  use,  not  abuse,  to  care  for  as  one  would  care  for 
one's  own  person,  to  protect  and  watch  over  as  one  would  guard 
one's  choicest  gift,  to  enjoy  as  one  enjoys  the  things  of  one's 
own  creation,  and  to  reverence  and  respect  as  the  most  blessed 
condition  that  life  has  to  offer,  such  a  feeling  properly  fostered 
would  make  every  purpose  of  the  home  a  united  ambition, — 
provided  each  member  is  given  the  thought  that  but  for  his  or 
her  help  it  could  not  exist,  and  provided  the  purpose  is  made 
to  appeal  to,  and  attract  each  and  every  one  concerned.  The 
family  in  this  sense  takes  on  a  form  that  is  more  than  an  asso- 
ciation, because  the  social  element  is  prominent  and  an  ex- 
pression far  beyond  anything  suggested  by  paternalism,  or 
even  maternalism. 

Permissions  and  privileges  are  submerged  in  common-sense 
and  independence.  Even  the  young  and  helpless  are  made  to 
feel  a  growing  strength  in  self-reliance  and  judgment,  that 
only  the  discipline  of  corporate  interests  can  adequately  foster. 
So  important  is  the  enlisting  of  the  sympathies  and  intelligent 
co-operation  of  the  children  in  the  activities  of  the  modern  home, 
that  the  writer  suggests  from  personal  experience,  the  adapta- 

176 


THE    ORGANIZATION    OF    THE    FAMILY 

ion  and  adoption  of  the  club  form  of  organization.     In  which! 
>ractically  everything  that  is  of  mutual  concern  is  put  to  vote. 
The  work  involved  in  the  realization  is  developed  as  any  public 
nterprise,  by  division  into  parts,  or  small  committees.     The 
•fficers  of  such  a  family  club  would  be  either  elected,  or  ac- 
:epted,  as  the  natural  position  of  parent  and  child  would  sug- 
gest.    In  fact  the  separate  identification  of  President,  Secre- 
ary,  and  Committee  member,  would  not  be  as  important  as  that 
ach  office  should  be  efficiently  filled.     The  mother  might  be 
'resident,  Treasurer,  Secretary,  and  Committee  member,  all  in 
me.    Yet  the  operations  would  go  on,  on  the  basis  of  not  only 
ach  one  having  a  right  to  express  an  opinion,  but  knowing 
omment,  or  criticism  would  be  met  with  the  just  consideration 
that  club  ethics  direct.    All  co-operation  would  be  on  the  basis 
of  willingness  to  do  one's  part,  rather  than  having  Mary  do  this 
thing  for  Mother,  or  John  told  he  must  do  that  before  a  certain 
hour.     The  home  is  Mary's  and  John's  as  long  as  they  are  a 
part  of  it,  just  as  the  school-house  should  be  the  concern  of  all 
the  children.     Self-government  there,  as   in  the  home,  is  the 
result  of  having  a  personal  sense  of  ownership  and  responsibility. 
There  should  also  be  stated  times  for  the  family  to  meet  for,  say 
weekly  discussions,  when  all  subjects  of  importance  should  be 
brought  before  the  group,  and  decisions  made  as  to  their  solu- 
tion.    A  simple  program,  or  order  of  approach  of  the  subjects 
themselves,   would  naturally   develop,   and   while    a   course    of 
parliamentary  law  might  not  be  necessary,  the  essence,  or  ob- 
ject, of  it  should  be  regarded.     That  is,  justice  to  each,  and 
order  and  ease  of  operation  for  all.     The  father,  or  mother 
being  the  chair,  when  present.     The  simplest  Constitution  and 
By-laws  might  be  needed,  that  would  merely  state  the  object  of 
the  little  group,  and  the  rules  for  such  meetings.     Such  gather- 
ings could  in  all  reverence,  be  the  modern  evolution  of  the 
family-prayer  custom,  now  almost  extinct  in  our  land,  inasmuch 
as  the  higher  civilization  of  Nations  has  made  men  feel  that 
supplication  and  the  beseeching  of  the  Lord  for  benefits  must 
give  way  to  a  genuine  effort  to  help  one's  self  by  shouldering 
one's  own  burden  and  doing  one's  best  in  the  service  of  others. 
A  religion  of  daily  work,  and  not  of  special  benefits  and  privi- 

177 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

leges.  An  harmonious  family  life  cannot  exist  in  an  atmosphere 
of  laziness,  discontent,  or  wrangling,  which  unfortunately  is  too 
often  found  in  greater  or  lesser  degree,  in  the  highly  tensioned 
and  nervous  American  blood.  Its  solution  is  to  make  the  dis- 
gruntled member  a  Committee  man;  give  him  something  to  do 
and  see  that  he  becomes  responsible  for  the  doing,  working  his 
way  into  the  family  management  through  favors  earned  and 
not  through  demand,  or  by  any  act  of  begging.  Even  the 
youngest  should  be  listened  to  with  attention  and  respect. 
Criticism  should  be  invited  from  the  little  ones,  but  all  fault- 
finding should  be  reserved  for  the  proper  time;  presented  if 
possible  at  the  appointed  family  gathering,  and  in  the  form  of 
writing,  that  a  sympathetic  sort  of  action  be  taken  for  better 
mutual  understanding.  (A  family  Debating-society  might  also 
be  in  order  and  useful.) 

While  we  find  the  Efficiency  System  applies  with  astonish- 
ing results  to  the  management  of  the  house,  and  the  accom- 
plishment of  housework,  it  is  perhaps  more  wonderful  in  its 
psychological  result  upon  the  personal  development  and  united 
action  of  the  family.  The  thorough  understanding  of  its 
meaning,  even  by  one  member,  pulls  the  family  together,  as  it 
were,  in  a  way  that  nothing  else  can,  save  a  masterly  personality 
at  the  head,  and  while  in  no  sense  does  it  tend  to  reduce  the 
importance  of  the  power  of  such  a  person,  it  makes  it  easier 
to  arrive  at  the  desired  status.  Love  holds  sway  of  course,  love 
of  children  and  parent,  but  the  manner  of  moulding  these  into 
service  for  each,  and  action  for  all,  becomes  an  orderly  and 
definite  form  of  organization;  whereas  now  the  average  family 
is  organized  only  in  so  far  as  the  natural  ties  express  them- 
selves through  happening  to  be  a  Smith  instead  of  a  Jones,  liv- 
ing in  the  Smith  house,  having  three  appointed  meals  a  day,  and 
doing  as  nearly  as  possible  as  somebody  else  suggests,  or  as 
their  fancy  dictates.  To  rally  around  an  Ideal  of  one's  own,  to 
use  all  the  Common-sense  and  Judgment  possible  in  carrying  out 
that  ideal,  to  get  all  the  Competent  Counsel  available,  to  give 
the  Square  Deal  to  everybody  and  encourage  it  in  return,  to 
Discipline  through  doing  and  not  by  attacking,  to  keep  all 
important  Records  accurately  and  immediately  cared  for,  to 

178 


THE    ORGANIZATION    OF    THE    FAMILY 

form  a  co-operative  program  of  procedure  as  one's  Standard 
and  Schedule,  to  Plan  and  Dispatch  with  love,  wisdom,  and 
precision.  To  Standardize  Conditions  for  the  comfort  and  con- 
venience of  each,  making  every  Operation  interesting  as  well 
as  useful.  To  note  each  point  of  importance  to  the  family  as  a 
whole  and  to  be  ready  with  generous  Reward  and  appreciation 
for  even  the  dog — if  he  is  concerned — cannot  fail  to  make  a 
family  organization  able  to  meet  life's  storms  and  sunshine  with 
profit  to  itself  and  the  world. 


179 


CHAPTER    III 

CO-OPERATION    IN    HOME    ACTIVITIES 

"The  principles  of  efficiency  are  but  the  natural  law  of  success,  in- 
stinctive in  great  leaders,  but  readily  adoptable  by  all" 

As  there  have  always  been  successful  and  unsuccessful  indi- 
viduals in  the  world,  so  there  are  families  who  pull  together  at 
every  point  and  accomplish  wonders ;  and  families  who  never 
seem  to  get  anywhere  in  particular,  but  who  suffer  from  weak- 
ness of  some  form  of  disintegration  which  sooner  or  later  seems 
to  attack  them  in  a  vital  spot,  and  after  faltering  for  a  time, 
down  they  go,  unfitted  to  stand  the  world  from  all  sides  and 
profit  by  its  ways. 

While  we  know  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  sum  up  into  any 
definiteness,  the  reasons  and  qualities  for  success  and  failure 
in  life,  we  are  also  impressed  with  the  fact  that  these  qualities 
have  been  studied,  analyzed  and  classified  in  relation  to  the 
person  from  a  variety  of  sides,  while  the  study  of  the  family  as 
a  successful  unit  has  had  scarce  a  passing  thought.  We  hear 
the  adjectives  fine,  healthy,  talented,  good-for-nothing,  degen- 
erate, etc.,  but  seldom  do  we  note  any  discussion  or  serious  inter- 
est as  to  what  has  truly  made  these  family  groups  so  distinctive. 
It  is  dismissed  with  the  notion  of  heredity,  or  fortunate  circum- 
stances, a  trait  in  the  blood,  good  luck,  or  merely  with  the  facts 
of  certain  things  having  resulted;  but  any  digging  down  into 
the  causes  to  find  the  reason  why;  any  corporate  study  of  the 
various  members  and  how  they  work  together  as  one;  the  un- 
derlying principles  and  the  method  of  developing  them  so  that 
other  families  might  do  likewise,  has  not  met  the  writer's  knowl- 
edge. We  have  been  satisfied  to  follow  the  family  through 
history  as  it  exists,  with  a  historic  and  passing  interest,  but 
with  no  particular  idea  of  developing  families  to  order,  accord- 
ing to  any  plan  other  than  the  natural  selection  theory.  That 
any  family  can  be  led  to  self-consciousness  and  self-determina- 

180 


CO-OPERATION    IN    HOME    ACTIVITIES 

tion  by  adopting  a  system  of  development  around  a  central  idea, 
has  not  sufficiently  entered  the  possibilities  of  our  educational 
conception.  Love  and  devotion  on  the  part  of  the  mother,  the 
ambition  and  self-denial  of  the  father,  and  educational  oppor- 
tunities for  the  children,  about  sum  up  the  elements  considered 
essential  for  success.  Not  to  minimize  the  importance  of  any  of 
these,  but  to  add  to  them  a  personal  background  for  their  best 
usefulness,  is  the  purpose  of  this  chapter.  For  many  a  family 
tragedy  has  been  the  result  of  a  motherly  devotion,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  life  value  of  the  mother ;  or  fatherly  self-denial  that 
robbed  the  children  of  any  sense  of  responsibility,  and  higher 
training  advantages  that  have  been  a  waste  for  lack  of  "com- 
mon-sense" concentration. 

A  reorganization,  therefore,  of  such  virtues  into  a  more 
modern  form  of  operation  that  excludes  all  unnecessary  human 
waste,  is  the  central  note  in  the  management  of  the  home  from 
the  personal  side,  and  here  again  we  would  introduce  the  effi- 
ciency principles  or  management  from  the  conception  of  a  Func- 
tional operative  basis,  rather  than  an  Authoritative  one.  By 
the  latter  we  mean  the  results  of  command  and  influence,  through 
the  grading  of  authority  from  Captain  to  Corporal.  The  or- 
ders are  given,  and  either  faith  in,  or  fear  of  the  General,  and 
the  long  habit  of  discipline  make  them  effective;  whether  the 
Company  understands,  or  not,  is  not  of  first  importance.  Each 
is  responsible  to  something,  or  somebody,  but  not  to  the  whole 
Cause,  as  an  organ  of  the  body  must  be. 

The  functional  mode  of  management,  on  the  other  hand, 
would  emphasize  the  need  of  understanding  first ;  a  spontaneous 
co-operation  second;  and  personal  responsibility  to  the  chosen 
ideal  as  third.  All  three  essential  to  the  right  kind  of  action 
and  development,  when  instead  of  authority  being  the  cause  of 
the  effect,  it  is  rather  the  intelligent  functioning  of  each  part 
stimulated  by  the  circulation  of  educated  common-sense,  and 
moving  freely  and  harmoniously  in  relation  to  all  the  other 
parts.  Harmonious  control  rather  than  managerial  control. 

While  the  making  of  a  home,  and  the  work  of  the  house, 
demand  the  united  effort  and  attention  of  all  the  family  all  the 
time,  certain  tasks  are  particularly  adapted  to  co-operative 

181 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

effort.  Take  for  example,  the  making  of  a  bed.  It  is  wiser 
or  two  people  to  make  the  beds.  The  movements  are  simpler, 
more  readily  directed,  and  less  time  is  taken  in  walking  from 
one  side  to  the  other.  A  thorough  study  should  first  be  made 
of  the  kind  and  number  of  motions  required  in  making  a  stand- 
ard bed.  That  is,  a  bed  that  has  been  properly  aired,  dusted, 
turned,  spread,  and  folded  in,  or  tucked  under.  Even  the  orna- 
mental coverings  should  be  chosen  with  a  view  to  the  amount 
of  time  and  care  needed  in  the  placing  and  displacing.  When 
this  has  been  reduced  to  a  speed  and  motion  schedule,  the  aver- 
age bed  will  be  found  to  take  about  sixty  motions  and  sixteen 
steps  in  four  minutes,  but  very  much  less  in  proportion,  when 
performed  by  two  persons  instead  of  one.  Then  again  the 
element  of  companionship  and  competition  enter  in,  the  interest 
in  the  work  of  each  other,  and  the  pleasure  of  moving  along  to- 
gether. This  is  noticeably  true  in  such  tasks  as  the  shelling  of 
~p£as  and  hulling  of  strawberries,  the  husking  of  corn,  and  the 
washing  of  dishes.  The  constant  experimenting  as  to  better 
methods  and  more  advanced  standards,  is  an  added  source  of 
delight,  and  the  learning  to  work  together  in  the  same  school 
of  domestic  advancement. 

So  throughout  the  house,  when  the  plan  in  maintaining  the 
standard  of  the  home  is  understood  by  all,  the  central  motive 
appreciated,  and  the  separate  tasks  naturally,  or  voluntarily 
assumed,  with  the  responsibility  proportionately  divided,  each 
part  moves  along  with  the  consciousness  of  its  being  indispen- 
sable to  the  whole,  and  of  its  own  importance  and  merit  in  each 
undertaking,  ready  to  rush  to  the  aid  of  the  other  parts  in  case 
of  need,  from  pure  interest  in  the  outcome,  and  concern  as  to 
the  details.  Thus  there  enters  a  kind  of  discipline  that  is  pro- 
ductive of  courage,  a  concentration  on  the  desired  result,  and 
a  perseverance  in  order  to  hold  up  one's  end  and  therefore 
everybody  else,  that  makes  self-determination  and  control. 
Mind  enters  into  Matter  and  blazes  the  way.  Matter  becomes 
illuminated  by  mind  and  develops  in  ready  service. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  all  is  play  and  easy  of  accom- 
plishment. One  gets  very  tired,  confused  and  discouraged  at 
times,  and  even  finds  it  laborious  to  keep  up  his  or  her  end, 

182 


CO-OPERATION    IN    HOME    ACTIVITIES 

but  such  feelings  are  not  dead  and  without  hope.  One  does 
not  feel  the  victim  of  anybody  else,  but  rather  the  pleasure  and 
power  of  individuality  that  takes  up  the  work  again  with  a 
new  courage  and  a  new  perspective,  having  had  merely  a  lapse 
of  disinterestedness,  as  one  often  has  in  the  upkeep  of  one's  own 
person,  clothes,  or  character,  when  perhaps  a  higher  form  of 
energy  is  accumulating,  and  the  fresh  start  makes  up  for  the 
break. 

The  morning  housework  is  tedious  and  monotonous,  looked  at 
in  one  sense,  but  no  more  so  than  for  some  people  to  get  up 
before  breakfast,  bathe,  and  exercise  and  take  themselves  to  the 
table  in  an  amiable  mood.  The  routine  of  life  anywhere  and 
under  any  circumstances  is  questionable  pleasure.  Taking  the 
routine  sense  out  of  it,  is  the  art  of  an  intelligent  soul;  and 
this  we  say  is  possible  even  in  the  sordid  work  of  dusting,  air- 
ing, and  dishwashing.  It  is  when  the  work  gets  all  out  of  pro- 
portion as  to  time,  and  accumulates,  that  the  trouble  comes. 
One  should  arrange  to  keep  ahead,  yet  one  task  should  not  be 
continued  for  more  than  two  hours  without  a  change  or  recre- 
ation, and  all  so-called  routine  work  should  be  spaced  as  to  re- 
lated value.  For  instance,  the  writer  rises  at  quarter  before 
seven,  performs  a  rapid  fifteen-minutes  to  half-hour  toilet, 
reaches  the  breakfast  room  at  quarter  after  seven,  has  a  simple 
breakfast  ready  in  ten  minutes,  after  the  serving  of  which  any 
one  of  the  household  may  readily  catch  the  eight-o'clock  train. 
The  table  is  cleared,  the  dishes  washed,  and  the  luncheon  and 
dinner  planned  or  started  by  nine,  leaving  an  hour  for  tidying 
up  and  arranging  the  upstairs  rooms,  and  two  hours  each  morn- 
ing for  a  special  task,  or  occupation,  before  luncheon  need  be 
considered.  Such  a  noon  meal  should  not  in  reason  consume 
more  than  an  hour  on  an  average,  including  preparation  and 
the  clearing  away.  An  hour  for  dinner  preparation  leaves  time 
for  another  two-hour  task,  and  two  hours  for  one's  self  before 
it  is  necessary  to  serve  the  evening  meal,  which  at  this  time 
should  not  consume  altogether  more  than  two  hours,  allowing 
a  free  evening  for  the  thing  of  one's  choice.  While  this  may 
be  a  standard  program  from  which  one  deviates  at  will,  the  idea 
is  to  suggest  proportion  in  time-study.  As  a  rule  we  find 

183 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

within  the  prosperous  home  much  too  great  an  amount  of  time 
set  aside  for  eating  and  the  preparation  of  food.  While  this 
is  an  important  part  of  family  life,  it  becomes  a  dangerous  ele- 
ment when  allowed  to  move  out  of  proportion  to  other  things. 

Most  of  us  would  be  far  better  off  if  a  larger  proportion  of 
this  time  were  devoted  to  the  proper  preparation  of  food  in  the 
mouth.  It  is  certainly  out  of  line  to  spend  two  hours  making 
a  cherry  pie  that  is  to  be  gulped  down  in  two  minutes.  Eating 
under  the  right  circumstances  is  a  delightful  occupation  for 
most  people.  Why  then  make  it  a  speed  trick  for  a  passing 
moment?  People  have  forever  enjoyed  gathering  around  a 
table  of  goodies,  and  perhaps  there  is  no  better  illustration  of 
family  co-operation  than  that  encouraged  through  the  giving 
of  a  Social  Party  that  brings  those  of  all  ages  together  for 
a  pleasant  festive  time.  LWe  all  know  how  successful  clubs  and 
other  organizations  have  been  in  planning  and  carrying  out 
feasts  and  entertainments  of  various  sorts.  In  the  first  place 
everybody  is  interested  and  then  the  plan  is  made  with  every- 
body responsible,  therefore  everybody  is  willing  to  help  if  need 
be.  With  a  clear  vision  of  the  event  in  the  minds  of  all,  and  a 
good  manager  at  the  head,  co-operation  in  the  details  becomes 
the  natural  and  easy  method  of  realization.  But  where  one 
person  takes  the  whole  responsibility,  everything  is  apt  to  be 
neglected  and  left  for  this  overburdened  one  to  push  through 
as  best  he  can.  Just  so  with  the  Family  co-operative  Entertain- 
ment or  Party.  If  each  is  encouraged  to  find  an  interest  in 
the  occasion  and  given  a  share  in  the  responsibility,  not  with 
a  watcher  to  see  that  each  part  is  done,  but  with  the  assurance 
and  confidence  among  all  that  it  will  be,  because  the  self-respect 
of  each  is  at  stake ;  really  creditable  entertaining  may  be  done 
with  slight  cost  and  little  waste,  material  or  human — the  latter 
being  more  important — and  every  such  effort  must  make  a 
stronger,  happier  and  better  organized  family  unit.  Such  recre- 
ation is  valuable,  but  such  co-operation  and  co-ordination  is  in- 
valuable in  the  development  of  a  higher  and  more  productive 
self-consciousness  that  results  in  the  unqualified  success  of  the 
family  who  practices  such  a  method. 


184 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE    HOME    AND    THE    MONEY    PROBLEM 

"Give  us  wealth." — You  ask  too  much. 
"Few  have  wealth,  but  all  must  have  a  home" 

"O,  if  I  only  had  money  enough,  there  would  be  no  trouble 
with  the  home.  It  is  because  I  have  to  count  every  cent,  that 
things  are  not  as  they  should  be."  How  often  one  hears  re- 
marks of  this  sort  and  how  blissfully  ignorant  is  the  one  ex- 
pressing herself  thus,  of  the  lack  of  personal  force  such  a 
speech  suggests.  Surely  anyone  can  appropriate  whatever  is 
available,  if  one  but  have  the  price.  The  price  of,  "should  be," 
is,  however,  very  seldom  money.  It  is  because  we  have  so  imag- 
ined it,  that  our  social  order  has  unhappily  anchored  itself  in 
the  deep  water  of  "Omnipotent  Means"  as  the  one  necessity,  and 
men  are  driven  to  money-making  for  home  demands  as  a  life 
race. 

Capital  of  course  is  an  essential  factor,  just  as  labor  is  an 
essential  factor,  but  neither  of  these  can  accomplish  anything 
worth  the  having  where  capability  is  absent.  Whereas,  money 
without  ability  and  without  labor  is  as  tinsel  and  foolishness. 
Labor  without  ability  and  money  is  serfdom  and  drudgery.  But 
capability  without  either  money  or  available  labor,  straightway 
produces  both,  calls  into  being,  as  it  were — out  of  the  abyss— 
all  that  is  essential  for  accomplishment,  making  men  by  the  way, 
instead  of  business  machines  and  money  slaves. 

One  can  overdo  the  habit  of  money-making  and  money-want- 
ing until  there  is  little  left  but  the  mere  shell  of  what  might 
have  been  a  real  human  character.  One  can  overdo  the  habit 
of  work  until  a  bended  and  misshapen  body  tells  the  tale  of  a 
poor  order  of  intelligence,  but  one  cannot  overdo  practice  in 
capability.  It  gathers  as  it  goes,  becoming  more  and  more 
virile,  more  and  more  productive,  and  more  and  more  pleased 
with  existence.  Therefore  the  aim  should  be  ability,  with  money 

185 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

and  labor  following  as  essential  sides  of  the  triangle,  but  not 
the  apex.  Neither  is  money-giving  the  highest  form  of  gener- 
osity, whether  one  has  little  or  much.  It  is  what  most  people 
think  they  want  and  'tis  often  the  very  easiest  thing  to  offer, 
but  how  much  better  is  a  boost  or  a  lift  by  the  way,  or  a  help- 
ing to  the  next  step  of  acquirement.  Money  is  but  a  shift,  and 
we  all  scorn  shifts.  As  Emerson  says :  "You  are  to  bring  with 
you  that  spirit-  which  is  understanding,  health,  and  self-help." 
To  offer  money  in  lieu  of  these,  is  a  scorn ;  the  shadow  of  good. 

Money  for  the  solution  of  the  household  is  just  as  foolish- 
minded  a  desire  as  money  for  the  creation  of  happiness.  It  is 
always  something  else  that  brings  relief,  although  it  may  appear 
to  be  the  bank-account  at  first  thought. 

To  get  a  dinner  when  there  is  "nothing  in  the  house,"  to  make 
a  hat,  or  gown,  out  of  the  merest  scraps,  is  a  feat  that  calls 
forth  all  sorts  of  virtues  along  with  thrift,  and  makes  a  con- 
queror in  the  doing. 

The  efficient  person  works  with  himself  and  not  with  the 
material  only.  Our  whole  thought  of  money  and  its  object, 
needs  to  be  reversed  and  readjusted.  The  great  depend  on 
themselves  and  their  capacity,  and  not  on  their  cash,  even 
though  the  latter  is  often  a  tremendous  help. 

A  bank-account  for  domestic  peace  is  again  not  the  answer, 
even  though  it  be  hard  to  turn  away  from  apparent  appearance. 
The  trouble  is  not  with  the  lack  of  funds.  Public  opinion  and 
individual  disability  are  the  actual  roots  of  the  disappointing 
and  disintegrating  home.  The  first,  in  that  it  dictates  without 
reason  what  shall  and  what  shall  not  be  appropriate  and  in 
good  form.  The  last  because  we  have  not  yet  realized  the 
importance  of  the  creative  personal  note,  nor  have  we  had  the 
proper  practical  education  to  understand  it. 

The  Servant  Problem,  for  instance,  is  now  in  the  control 
of  the  highest  bidder.  Not  necessarily  those  who  give  the  most 
wages,  but  those  who  offer  maximum  privilege,  are  holding  the 
condition  in  abeyance.  But  that  is  no  solution.  It  is  merely 
side-stepping  the  real  issue,  and  is  vicious  in  effect.  Mismoti- 
vating  the  central  point  and  leaving  the  real  difficulty  untouched. 

So  also  with  the  leisure  lover,  who  in  thinking  money  the  one 

186 


THE  HOME  AND  THE  MONEY  PROBLEM 

and  only  need,  is  avoiding  the  best  chance  of  arriving  at  any 
desired  goal  himself,  or  herself,  by  neglecting  the  simple  work 
at  hand  that  would,  through  developing  personal  ability,  trans- 
form the  whole  existence,  and  make  the  self-earned  leisure  some- 
thing from  which  to  create  a  form  eternal. 

After  all  time  is  the  only  thing  for  which  human  beings  must 
account ;  time  and  its  use.  Shall  the  days  make  men  and  women  ? 
Or  shall  they  make  shams  and  shadows?  The  answer  is  in 
the  value  of  the  hour,  and  the  personal,  use  of  one's  surround- 
ings. Money,  as  one  of  the  tools,  is  a  valuable  asset,  but  money 
as  a  solution  is  a  misnomer.  Who  can  say  what  the  standard 
of  home-keep  should  be?  It  varies  so  enormously  as  to  be  ab- 
solutely an  individual  note,  and  yet  rich  and  poor  alike,  the 
pampered  and  the  destitute,  are  looking  for  more  of  this  where- 
withal to  live.  There  are  two  sentiments  that  so  far  as  the 
writer  is  concerned,  are  hard  to  meet,  with  any  degree  of  suc- 
cess. One  that  expressed  by  the  would-be — though  often  dan- 
gerously devoted  mother  who  says:  "My  home  and  my  chil- 
dren of  course  come  first,  always" — but  who  really  sacrifices 
both  woefully  by  sacrificing  herself.  The  other  who  insists  that 
all  is  hopeless  without  at  least  money  enough  to  keep  things 
running.  The  mother  who  neglects  her  home  and  children  to 
the  extent  of  letting  the  dust  rest,  and  throwing  these  younger 
people  as  soon  as  possible  on  their  own  resources,  in  order 
that  she  may  go  forth  and  enrich  herself  and  therefore  her 
home  conditions,  is  wiser  than  the  usual  short  sight  allows. 
She  is  not  only  sowing  good  seed  in  the  present,  but  is  pre- 
paring to  reap  abundantly  in  the  future.  An  efficient  grip  on 
life  at  every  turn,  a  grip  that  must  make  for  knowledge  and 
skill  by  virtue  of  its  positive  attack,  is  we  believe  worth  infinitely 
more  in  keeping  things  running,  than  many  dollars  can  ever  be 
without  this  acquired  habit.  The  more  one  has,  the  more  one 
needs.  Applied  to  money  and  the  destructive  elements,  this 
is  something  to  consider,  but  applied  to  knowledge  and  the  con- 
structive virtues,  this  law  becomes  an  automatic  self-help.  These 
higher  virtues  and  perceptions  find  their  materials  everywhere, 
while  the  less-wise  cry  out  for  particular  things  and  unusual 
commodities. 

187 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

No,  it  is  not  the  money  standard  we  should  spend  our  best 
effort  in  establishing.  The  problem  is  the  dignity,  beauty,  and 
cultural  value  of  labor  and  the  personal  use  of  the  leisure  hour. 
This  in  turn  cannot  fail  to  bring  its  reward  in  dollars,  but  they 
will  be  dollars  that  create,  not  dollars  that  stultify.  A  reason- 
able amount  of  work  for  everybody.  Common  every-day  work 
can  be  made  to  develop  the  mind,  the  hand,  and  the  man  just 
as  surely  as  has  ever  the  pen,  the  brush,  or  the  class  room. 
And  there  can  be  no  opportunity,  no  Fair  Deal  even,  for  all, 
until  labor  instead  of  money,  is  distributed  more  evenly  through- 
out the  home.  A  man  is  entitled  to  all  the  money  he  can  make 
honestly,  but  no  man  should  be  allowed  to  put  the  pressure  bit 
upon  another's  labor,  making  a  slave  of  the  worker,  and  an  idle 
drone  of  himself.  We  must  ofjQpurse  recognize  the  labor  of  the 
head,  as  well  as  that  of  the  hands  and  the  entire  body,  but  the 
ideal  balance  is  that  including  the  whole  person,  and  demand- 
ing the  entire  ability,  not  for  all  the  time,  but  for  a  moderate 
period  of  each  day,  with  rest  and  recreation  as  essentials.  Work 
beginning  in  and  for  the  home,  and  extending  out  and  through 
society,  making  of  each  boy  and  girl,  and  man  and  woman,  a 

•  completely  efficient  being  who  can  speak  and  act  in  the  lan- 
,  guage  of  a  higher  expression  of  personal  effort  and  not  in  the 

•  voice  or  spirit  of  the  money  worshipper. 

"What  we  are  is  God's  gift  to  us :  what  we  make  of  ourselves 
is  our  gift  to  God." 


188 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  CULTURAL  VALUE  OF  HOUSEWORK 

"Let  us  understand  then  that  a  house  should  bear  witness  in  all  its 
economy  that  human  culture  is  the  end  to  which  it  is  built  and 
garnished" 

"It  isn't  what  you  do,  but  the  way  you  do  it,  that  makes  for  good 

or  ill" 

As  one  looks  upon  a  well-conceived  picture,  where  the  object 
of  interest  in  the  foreground  suggests  a  perspective  leading  to 
an  illuminated  background,  subtly  but  unmistakably  related  to 
nothing  less  than  the  whole  universe;  so  one  may  form  a  vision 
of  the  kind  of  home  where  culture  finds  an  entrance  and  thus 
transforms  every  thought  and  activity  to  an  atmosphere  of 
conscious  relationship  to  all  that  is  finest  in  life. 

Every  great  thought  and  feeling  in  the  world  has  played  its 
part  in  the  home.  Talent  and  genius  have  come  forth  from  it 
and  returned  unto  it  again,  as  the  electric  current  returns  to 
its  source.  History  and  Government  have  been  because  of  the 
home,  and  the  very  motive  for  all  existence  has  forever  centered 
there,  for  we  find  in  the  two  natural  instincts  that  divert  from 
the  great  consciousness,  the  one  of  world-conquering,  the  other 
home-making,  that  the  object  of  the  first  is  but  to  deposit  the 
results  at  the  shrine  of  the  second.  Hence  the  home  and  its  life 
is  supreme. 

Is  it  reasonable,  therefore,  to  concede  that  the  necessary 
activities  to  maintain  that  home  have  no  cultural  value  ?  Either 
we  are  misled  and  confused  in  our  idea  of  culture,  or  the  home 
is  more  appallingly  poor  than  it  should  be,  with  its  inheritance 
of  precious  gifts  and  its  own  vast  possibilities  for  expression. 

Perhaps  it  is  somewhat  of  each,  that  has  persuaded  the  mind 
into  the  belief  that  because  housework  has  been  and  is  a  form 
of  drudgery,  that  it  shall  perforce  so  remain.  Such  an  im- 
pression must  be  the  result  of  having  neither  time  nor  inclina- 

189 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

tion  to  reach  out  and  up  and  allow  the  light  of  the  world  to 
pour  itself  in  and  shed  its  radiance  through  every  nook  and 
corner.  Any  isolated,  detached  and  common-place  attitude  to- 
ward housework  is  not  so  much  because  of  the  character  of  the 
work  involved  as  because  of  the  lack  of  vision  of  the  worker 
and  a  misuse  or  non-use  of  that  greatest  of  cultural  gifts,  hu- 
man imagination.  If  the  spirit  of  beauty  and  romance  had  been 
encouraged  to  follow  the  cook  and  the  house-maid,  as  it  has 
traced  the  steps  of  the  shepherd,  for  instance,  and  the  milk- 
maid, perhaps  house-cleaning  and  washing  might  not  have 
wandered  so  far  afield  from  the  arts.  Certain  it  is  that  it  be- 
hooves all  women  of  the  day  to  do  their  utmost  toward  raising 
these  things  from  the  drudgery  standard,  by  cutting  away  the 
barriers  of  a  shut-in  and  limited  point  of  view,  and  relating  the 
every  act  required  in  the  process  of  housework  to  the  highest  of 
human  activities.  It  makes  little  difference  what  one  does,  but 
all  the  difference  that  is  thinkable,  how  and  under  what  motive 
one  works.  The  thoughtful  and  efficient  worker  puts  not  only 
his  mind,  but  his  whole  being  into  the  task  at  hand,  conquers  it 
in  a  masterly  way  and  relates  it  to  everything  else  he  knows  at 
every  conceivable  point,  thus  is  he  not  satisfied  until  what  he 
does  is  beautifully  done.  If  Ibsen  has  contributed  one  element 
of  more  value  than  another,  it  is  to  the  writer's  mind,  that 
absorbing  thought  of  everything, — even  the  most  morbid  un- 
dertakings,— being  beautifully  done.  Perfect  in  whole-spirited- 
ness,  nothing  left  out  that  belongs  to  it.  So  that  whether  one 
is  at  the  wash-tub,  or  stringing  beans,  all  the  science  and  art 
of  each, — the  use  of  the  fingers  and  the  movements  of  the  entire 
body, — should  enter  each  occupation  and  give  back  in  inspira- 
tion and  culture  more  than  it  takes  in  strength  and  tempera- 
ment. It  is  a  sad  waste  of  human  life  that  allows  the  affairs  of 
the  day  to  take  from  it  more  than  they  can  give  back  in  profit. 
A  kind  of  drudgery  that  is  immoral,  unbusinesslike  and  un- 
healthy. 

Some  day  when  a  new  prophet  appears,  we  are  going  to 
realize  that  beauty  reigns  supreme  in  this  world  and  sooner  or 
later  all  else  must  succumb.  Why  the  delight  in  art  except  that 
it  be  the  messenger  of  this  truth?  There  is  an  art  element  in 

190 


THE    CULTURAL    VALUE    OF    HOUSEWORK 

every  constructive  act,  that  can  be  found  for  the  looking  to 
bring  rich  treasure  in  its  wake.  When  we  stop  the  breaking 
and  tearing-down  habit,  perchance  this  kind  of  building-up  im- 
pulse will  take  its  place,  and  it  will  become  disgraceful  for 
thought,  action,  or  word  to  destroy  one's  body  or  mind.  Let  us 
look  to  it,  then,  that  the  essentials  in  housework  are  beauti- 
fully done,  skillfully,  thoughtfully,  neatly  and  exquisitely,  that 
the  doing  of  housework  may  produce  a  new  kind  of  history,  asso- 
ciated with  all  the  homes  of  the  past,  but  with  a  transition  that 
puts  a  new  meaning  on  the  present,  and  the  promise  of  a  hap- 
pier story  for  the  future. 

Psychologically  the  home  has  never  been  awake,  but  stands 
ready  now  in  modern  form  to  bow  to  the  dawn,  clothe  itself  in 
purple  and  gold,  and  put  new  life  into  all  who  live  and  care  to 
live  aright,  by  introducing  an  educational  element  into  all  the 
work  of  the  day,  such  as  we  have  never  known  before.  Let  us 
welcome  this  Prince  of  Science,  and  hail  his  approach  in  each 
task.  If  literature  is,  as  Carlyle  says,  "the  thought  of  think- 
ing souls,"  why  should  there  not  be  a  literary  side  to  these 
every-day  occupations  that  have  come  down  to  us  through  the 
history  of  the  race?  Certain  it  is  that  language  and  letters 
and  reading,  all  enter  into  the  thought  of  the  home  and 
express  the  heart  of  the  inmates.  Conversation  leads  but  to 
truth  in  parts.  Meditation  and  thoughtful  study  unite  these 
parts  into  a  whole  and  when  expressed  in  writing,  'tis  called 
literature. 

But  perhaps  the  most  broadening  sense  of  personal  cultural- 
value  in  housework  comes  from  the  social  feeling  that  every- 
thing one  does  is  related  to  everybody  else.  One  becomes  not 
only  responsible  for  standards  of  operation,  but  ethically  for 
the  results  produced  upon  other  people  by  such  standards. 
Example  is,  we  know,  the  greatest  of  teachers,  and  all  acts  and 
motives  are  both  contagious  and  infectious.  Therefore  the 
sociological  element  enters  largely  here  and  declares  that  one 
shall  not  only  be  one's  brother's  keeper,  but  shall  see  to  it  that 
he  is  well  kept  and  encouraged  to  live  at  his  best. 

But  why  picture  any  more  in  the  background?  The  home 
nestles  before  us  in  its  native  spot,  and  the  atmosphere  of  cul- 

191 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

ture  is  within  and  about  it.  Let  us  open  the  window  and  take 
it  to  ourselves  with  the  morning  sun. 

Although  difficult  to  define,  is  not  this  cultural  atmosphere 
the  effect  of  relating  one's  self  to  the  moving  spirit  in  things? 
The  connection  with  and  the  appreciation  of  a  Creative  force? 
It  is  the  antithesis  of  the  isolated,  traditional  and  common-place 
mode  of  procedure.  It  is  realizing  the  life-value  and  worth  in 
every  move  and  mood;  the  advancement  of  thought  and  feeling 
in  the  line  of  daily  pursuits,  and  the  accumulation  of  a  sense  of 
quality  by  the  way. 

There  is,  we  believe,  in  every  part  of  housework  a  larger  and 
deeper  meaning,  and  a  relation  to  a  more  distant  condition  and 
background  than  is  generally  allowed.  What,  therefore,  must 
be  the  appalling  waste  through  not  appreciating  this  fact  ?  The 
lives  and  bodies  of  our  men  and  women  show  a  sacrifice  to 
this  end.  Where  we  should  have  the  health  of  the  Norseman 
and  the  beauty  in  form  of  the  Greek,  we  have  but  weak  nerve 
and  a  bended  head.  A  wider  perspective  must  lead  to  these 
heights,  which  will  be  found  very  real  and  substantial,  neither 
misty  nor  dizzy,  but  ready  to  shower  the  light  of  broad  knowl- 
edge into  the  smallest  detail  of  one's  every-day  labors. 

We  have  thought  of  our  play  as  picturesque,  but  the 
thought  of  this  element  in  work  and  in  housework  has  been  but 
to  regret  that  it  could  not  be,  but  play  and  work  must  be  united 
and  hie  themselves  off  together,  becoming  one  in  spirit  and  in 
truth,  all  that  is  needed  is  but  the  desire.  Aspiration  makes 
way  for  the  coming  of  inspiration  every  time,  and  woman  is 
the  great  aspirer.  She  is  the  source  and  sustainer  of  life,  and 
yet  she  must  know  more  of  herself,  and  of  natural  science  for 
every-day  application,  before  she  will  have  become  the  kind  of 
source  and  sustainer  most  needed.  This  but  awaits  her  desire 
and  is  within  her  intuitive  power  to  grasp  as  a  truly  cultural 
effect  because  of  her  contact  with  her  Maker  and  her  fellows 
through  every  hour  of  the  day — coupled  with  a  sense  of  her 
own  high  mission. 


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CHAPTER    VI 

TRAINING    FOR    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

"The  conservation  of  all  that  pertains  to  the  best  interests  of  home 
and  home  life,  should  be  our  first  concern" 

The  simple  undisputed  meaning  of  the  word  domestic — per- 
taining to  the  home,  or  family — will  give  us  no  cause  for  dis- 
cussion other  than  perhaps  its  inclusive  sense.  It  may  but 
relate  to  the  Kitchen  and  the  cat,  or  in  turn  it  may  include  all 
that  pertains  to  one's  State  and  Country.  To  limit  it  to  our 
particular  purpose,  however,  we  would  have  it  suggest  the 
home  and  all  that  affects  the  family  therein. 

To  qualify  engineering  and  its  purpose  as  a  profession,  asso- 
ciated with  domestic  activities,  is  the  purpose  of  this  Chapter. 
While  domestic  science  has  had  considerable  Academic  atten- 
tion, the  subject  of  domestic  engineering  has  not  yet  seriously 
entered  University  thought  and  practice. 

In  the  most  restricted  sense,  the  word  conveys  merely  the 
idea  of  designing,  constructing,  and  the  running  of  an  engine, 
but  as  the  profession  was  practiced  under  this  title  long  before 
an  engine  even  in  its  crudest  form,  was  invented,  we  must  search 
for  a  deeper  and  more  definite  explanation  than  is  suggested  by 
such  a  definition.  Although  the  planning,  constructing  and 
administrating  of  the  home  as  a  social  engine,  or  motive  power, 
in  the  community,  will  ever  be  the  highest  purpose  of  its  exist- 
ence, a  more  modern  translation  of  the  word  "engineering" 
would  be,  the  skillful  guidance  of  an  enterprise  to  a  desired 
result  through  knowledge  of  its  parts.  This,  coupled  with  the 
generally  accepted  meaning — "To  direct  the  great  sources  of 
power  in  nature  to  the  use  and  convenience  of  man,"  gives  a 
legitimate  use  for  the  term  in  connection  with  the  home  and  the 
sources  of  power  there  involved.  The  direction  of  this  power 
toward  desired  results,  and  the  knowledge  of  its  best  relation  to 
material,  to  the  principles  of  operation  and  to  the  laws  of 

193 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

nature,  is  an  education  needed  for  the  woman  just  as  much — 
if  not  more — than  for  the  man. 

By  Domestic  Engineering  then  is  meant  the  profession  of 
designing,  producing,  and  guiding  the  home  and  the  family  to 
approximate  perfection,  that  they  may  be  of  most  use  in  the 
world's  operations.  It  includes  all  that  is  allowed  under  Do- 
mestic Science  and  Home  Economics,  and  would  add  thereto 
the  principles  of  general  engineering,  efficiency  and  business. 

While  we  are  apt  to  associate  with  the  engineer  a  knowledge 
of  higher  mathematics,  the  actual  practice  in  this  subject  is  not 
as  essential  as  the  mental  result  of  the  habit  sdLjnathematical 
with,  of  course,  the  necessary \'  aptitude  for  such  a 
habit.  Accuracy  and  precision,  quick  perception  and  quick 
action,  good  judgment,  and  the  ingenuity  to  meet  and  over- 
come obstacles,  should  be  the  mathematical  sense  included. 

Mechanics  should  also  enter  very  largely  into  such  training. 
The  principles  involved  in  the  construction  and  running  of  ma- 
chinery, with  the  theory  of  and  practice  in  every  sort  of  house- 
hold machine  in  vogue  and  their  relative  values.  Ajstudy  in 
business  principles,  and  the  elements  of  economics  and  their 
application  at  every  point,  that  maximum  results  may  be  ar- 
rived at  with  least  waste  in  time,  labor  and  money.  The  in- 
ventive ability  should  be  encouraged  that  improvement  be  made 
progressive. 

Knowledge  of,  and  acquaintance  with  materials  of  every  sort 
that  enter  the  home,  and  their  use,  with  comparative  worth, 
would  be  one  of  the  endless  studies  in  this  profession. 

All  the  scientific  information  possible,  included  under  the 
general  head  of  physics,  of  the  science  of  energy,  together  with 
chemistry,  sanitation,  hygiene,  culinics,  dietetics,  etc.  In  other 
words,  a  familiarity  with  the  laws  of  nature  as  they  touch  and 
have  to  do  with  the  home  and  its  life.  But  it  is  about  this  last 
word  that  the  keynote  of  training  should  center ;  Jife,_inter- 
preted  in  psychology,  anatomy,  biology,  physiology,  etc.  The 
study  of  the  human  being  and  its  best  development,  is  the  corner- 
stone from  which  such  a  profession  should  grow,  expand  and 
develop.  The  form  of  training  required  should  start  with  the 
human  body,  unfolding  as  it  were,  to  its  environment.  It  should 


TRAINING    FOR    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

include  a  working  knowledge  of  each  physical  organ  and  the 
systems  of  circulation.  It  should  be  familiar  with  the  nerve 
centers  and  their  importance.  It  should  include  a  course  in 
mental  hygiene  and  in  manual  dexterity.  It  should  determine 
the  amount  and  kind  of  exercise  required  in  order  to  maintain 
health,  and  above  all  it  should  be  definitely  certain  as  to  the 
amount  and  kind  of  food  essential  for  proper  nutrition. 

The  profession  of  home-making  interpenetrates,  as  it  were, 
all  other  professions.  The  successful  mother  must  be  a  cook, 
a  nurse,  a  seamstress,  a  house-worker,  a  doctor,  a  minister,  a 
teacher,  a  writer,  a  hostess,  an  economist,  a  scientist,  an  artist, 
a  philosopher,  an  engineer,  a  business  manager,  a  public  and 
social  worker,  and  oftentimes  a  wage  earner  and  an  agricultural- 
ist. Such  a  list  is  awe-inspiring  and  yet  everybody  knows  the 
woman  of  the  house  is  expected  to  meet  this  great  field,  and 
frequently  does,  with  an  ability  that  is  astounding  when  one 
considers  the  inappropriateness  and  inadequacy  of  her  training. 
The  course  of  study  laid  out  for  the  average  girl  is  a  series  of 
periods  adapted  to  the  boy  mind,  for  the  reason  that  instead  of 
starting  with  the  study  of  herself  and  life  which  is  her  in- 
stinctive care,  she  is  made  to  detach  herself  from  her  center  of 
interest,  and  work  at  separated  and  partial  problems  that  only 
the  faculty  of  reason  can  put  together  for  proper  use,  and  then 
largely  for  mechanical  purposes;  a  faculty  in  which  she  does 
not  excel,  nor  was  it  ever  intended  that  she  should.  It  is  not 
the  highest  gift  to  humanity  nor  should  it  be  so  mistaken.  Her 
intuitive  gift  that  leads  her  to  know  from  putting  herself  in  the 
heart  of  the  subject,  her  very  contact  with  life  itself,  should  be 
better  understood,  reverenced,  and  fostered  from  the  beginning 
of  her  training,  and  a  class  of  studies  adapted  to  her  particular 
function  in  the  world,  correlating  with,  but  unlike  those 
adapted  to  the  development  of  the  boy.  Even  her  school  course 
in  domestic  science  originated  and  was  formed  upon  the  depart- 
ment of  manual  training  designed  for  the  other  sex.  The 
creation,  nutrition,  and  the  preservation  of  life,  is  her  por- 
tion, life  in  its  finest  form,  and  her  education  should  fit  accord- 
ingly. 

She  has  therefore  through  this  lack  of  training  had  an  un- 

195 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

warranted  struggle  to  maintain  her  real  place  in  the  world  of 
progress.  Unprepared  for  responsibility  and  unacquainted  with 
even  herself  and  her  true  function,  she  has  been  well-nigh  led 
astray  in  her  maternal  instinct, — if  it  were  possible  to  so  lead 
her. 

Thus  we  look  to  the  interest  in  Domestic  Engineering  to  re- 
model and  readjust  the  thought  of  the  day  as  to  the  sort  of 
knowledge  and  training  that  should  be  given  young  women. 
Not  that  it  should  differ  in  kind  from  the  present  course,  but  in 
point  of  view,  and  in  relation  to  life  and  its  operations.  The 
same  habits  of  study  and  breadth  of  view  should  be  encouraged. 
The  same  common-sense  and  courage  that  will  meet  each  prob- 
lem, old  and  new,  and  be  ready  for  any  emergency.  The  same 
higher  cultivation  that  makes  for  wider  appreciation,  but  it 
should  all  begin  with  herself,  and  focus  in  the  home  and  the 
family.  Then  will  the  mother  be  able  to  so  co-ordinate  and 
assemble  her  knowledge  through  the  understanding  of  the  life- 
value  in  all  things,  as  to  meet  with  strength  and  abundant 
resource  the  many-sided  demands  upon  her,  and  with  an 
insight  all  her  own,  a  natural  grasp,  intuitively  developed,  be 
led  to  see  the  solution  as  well  as  the  real  possibilities  of  every 
situation. 

The  writer  has  so  often  been  asked  to  outline  a  course  of  study 
for  a  Domestic  Engineer  that  perhaps  the  following  table — 
although  possibly  inadequate — may  suggest  a  form  of  schedule 
to  be  evolved : 

1st  Year — Self-knowledge — contained  perhaps  in  such  sub- 
jects as  Biology,  Anatomy,  Physiology,  Psychology,  Physical 
Culture,  Mental  Hygiene,  Sex  and  Mother  Study,  Nursing, 
Child  Study,  and  Life  Processes  including  Fatigue. 

2d  Year — Knowledge  of  Surroundings  as  suggested  in 
Science  and  Physics,  Chemistry,  Sanitation,  Bacteriology,  Study 
of  the  House,  Principles  and  Practice  of  Plumbing,  Heating, 
etc.,  Mechanics,  Economics,  Culinics,  Dietetics,  etc. 

3d  Year — Practice  in  Use  of  Environment — as  made  possible 
in  Vocational  and  Apprentice  Housework,  the  Arts  and 
Crafts,  Management  and  Execution,  Study  of  Textiles  and 

196 


TRAINING    FOR    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

Values,  Principles   of  Invention,  Business   and   Responsibility 
Tactics. 

4th  Year — Creation  of  Personality  the  result  of  applying  the 
above — Dramatic  Art,  Classic  Dance,  Art  Composition, 
Pageantry,  the  Study  of  Motion,  Family  Psychology  and  the 
Engineering  of  Home  Making. 


197 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   MEANING    OF    ROOMS 

"Infinite  riches  efen  in  a  little  room" 

Did  you,  my  good  reader,  ever  look  at  a  house  with  the  im- 
pression that  it  was  a  person?  Did  it  ever  make  faces  at  you, 
frown,  scowl,  or  be  astonished  at  your  gaze?  Look  upon  you 
with  a  threatening,  or  aggressive  expression,  perhaps  even  in 
vulgar  mood,  or  beckon  you  pleasantly  to  come  within  its  cosy 
shelter  and  enjoy  its  own  restful  and  delightful  air?  Even 
would  it  smile  were  its  form  not  so  fixed.  The  whole  attitude 
friendly  and  fine,  dignified  and  charming,  due  in  part  to  the 
skill  of  the  architect,  and  in  a  measure  to  the  requirements  of 
the  owner.  And  again  it  appears  as  the  exterior  clothing  of 
the  life  of  that  home,  conveying  the  disposition  of  the  family 
through  its  composition,  texture,  color,  form  and  quality. 

So  it  is  with  the  inner  expression,  dependent  of  course  upon 
line  and  proportion,  but  showing  the  status  of  individuality  and 
native  culture  through  its  furnishings  and  finish,  and  through 
the  personnel  of  each  room. 

Did  it  ever  occur  to  you  that  these  rooms  are  very  much 
more  than  divisions  of  space  for  pleasure  or  convenience  sake? 
No  matter  how  simple,  or  how  luxurious  the  spacings  may  be 
appointed,  the  meaning  and  object  is  the  same  in  all  houses. 
To  arrive  at  this,  to  develop  it  intelligently,  and  to  encourage 
the  suitable  use  of  each  room,  is  a  delightful  and  ever-present 
subject  of  interest  to  any  woman  who  has  a  spark  of  poetry  or 
dramatic  sense  in  her  make-up. 

And  let  us  not  think  the  meaning  is  any  less  real,  or  prac- 
tical because  of  weaving  about  it  this  feeling  of  romance,  for 
poetry  and  drama  that  is  not  founded  in  truth  and  actual  prac- 
tice and  expressed  with  conviction,  is  but  artificial  twaddle,  un- 
worthy its  name. 

The  setting  of  the  room  in  all  its  parts  should  introduce  and 

198 


THE    MEANING    OF    ROOMS 

suggest  the  character,  and  preface  the  destiny  in  family  action, 
and  the  atmosphere  of  the  whole  carry  one  into  the  more  subtle 
and  mystic  possibilities  of  each  domestic  hearth. 

But  let  us  proceed  to  this  meaning  by  taking  a  glance  back 
at  the  historical  beginning  of  rooms.  The  earliest  records  show 
the  interior  of  the  home  as  one  room,  or  cell,  for  the  purpose  of 
shelter  and  rest  from  outer  conflict;  the  evolution  of  this  cell, 
or  the  adding  of  other  cells,  or  chambers,  being  but  a  develop- 
ment of  civilization  and  corresponding  to  the  personal  progress 
of  man,  until  now  we  find  the  many-roomed  home  illustrative  of 
life  as  it  has  grown  in  complexity. 

Even  the  many-roomed  home  of  the  past  has  changed  greatly 
in  quality  and  been  adapted  to  present-day  requirements.  In- 
stead of  the  stiff  and  stern  expression  of  authority,  the  cold 
and  distant  atmosphere,  emphasized  with  hard  coloring  and 
morbid  touches  of  self-denial  and  the  fear  of  the  hereafter;  we 
have  homes  of  warm  and  intimate  feeling,  suggesting  ease,  free- 
dom, and  pleasure,  accentuated  with  little  touches  here  and 
there  of  delightful  memories,  personal  and  charming  notes. 
The  very  texture  of  the  walls  and  furnishings  suggesting  a 
mood  that  is  harmoniously  carried  out  in  coloring  and  composi- 
tion. The  art  of  furnishing  and  the  material  available,  having 
reached  a  truly  high  place  in  what  is  known  as  interior  decora- 
tion. But  in  most  part  it  revolves  around  a  tradition,  or  a 
period,  a  foreign  custom,  or  a  particular  school;  individuality 
and  life-value  having  made  but  limited  headway  even  where  vast 
sums  are  at  one's  disposal.  The  reason  for  this  being  that  the 
meaning  of  rooms  has  not  been  sufficiently  grasped  by  the  aver- 
age owner  and  decorator  alike.  The  house  is  much  more  human 
and  personal  than  has  been  generally  allowed. 

The  four  essential  sides  of  the  life  of  a  family  that  must  be 
supplied  by  the  closest  environment,  are  the  physical,  the  in- 
tellectual, the  social,  and  the  spiritual,  and  while  all  of  these 
enter  into  the  value  of  each  room,  the  setting  of  which  in  turn 
reacts  upon  each,  still  we  may  say  that  the  kitchen  supplies 
the  physical  man,  the  dining-room  the  understanding  of  his 
needs,  the  library  the  mental  side,  and  the  development  of 
knowledge.  The  drawing-room  the  social  and  entertainment 

199 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

side,  to  which  may  be  linked  any  other  rooms  of  recreation,  and 
the  bedroom  the  spiritual  and  psychic  side,  for  in  sleep  and 
repose  is  found  life's  highest  treasures.  All  of  the  past  and  all 
the  future  seem  to  marry  here  in  creation  of  the  present.  A 
veritable  reservoir  of  human  possibility,  and  the  greatest  gift  is 
to  know  how  to  envelop  one's  self  in  the  quality  of  sleep  that 
leads  to  spiritual  advance.  The  halls  and  stairs  are  as  the 
circulation,  or  connection  of  parts,  and  the  entrance  or  foyer 
as  the  will  that  regulates  transition,  and  develops  intuition. 
Mayhap  the  interpretation  appears  fanciful  and  yet  gentle 
reader,  stop  and  think.  Are  not  the  very  partitions  in  a  house, 
in  order  that  the  needs  of  the  body  be  supplied  in  each  part 
excluding  the  other  sides  for  the  time?  Fostering  a  concentra- 
tion on  the  purpose  at  hand?  Would  it  not  be  distracting  to 
intelligently  feed  one's  self  in  a  room  where  books,  and  music, 
sewing  and  business  were  each  taking  one's  attention  at  the  same 
time?  As  is  said  in  the  Good  Book:  "There  is  a  time  to  weep 
and  a  time  to  laugh,  a  time  to  mourn  and  a  time  to  dance"  and 
each  subject  should  have  its  place,  the  relation  determined  by 
the  spacing  and  the  inner  perspective.  The  floors  in  finish  and 
quality  giving  a  sense  of  the  foundation  of  the  room's  value ;  the 
ceiling  the  limitation.  Not  that  one  should  reach  great  heights 
in  reality,  but  in  sensation.  There  should  be  no  dull  and 
heavy  weight,  no  shutting  down  upon  one's  sense  of  proportion, 
but  a  clear,  transparent  tone  suggestive  of  ample  height.  The 
walls  tell  the  story  of  the  predominating  mood  of  the  inmates ; 
the  character  of  the  feeling  expressed  in  each  quarter,  and  the 
kind  of  inspiration  needed  in  all. 

As  to  the  furnishings,  they  are  but  the  tools  for  action;  the 
kind,  the  shape  and  quality  conforming  to  one's  thought.  So  a 
family  may  be  read,  all  unconsciously  perhaps,  by  peering 
through  the  windows  at  the  furnishings  therein  displayed.  Not 
only  the  rooms,  but  the  whole  house  should  be  looked  upon  as 
expressing  life.  The  inner,  or  more  private  part,  as  the  mind 
and  feeling.  The  house  itself  as  the  outer  form,  or  body,  and 
the  family  as  the  soul.  Then  would  furnishing  become  a  simpler 
study,  with  less  danger  of  the  accumulation  of  things,  unused 
and  unfitted  to  the  scene  and  its  period. 

200 


THE    MEANING    OF    ROOMS 

As  long  as  fashion  dictates  what  shall  and  shall  not  be,  in- 
congruities and  misfits  must  result.  Things  useful  for  the 
Smiths  will  not  merely  for  that  reason  be  useful  for  the  Joneses, 
for  while  the  whole  human  family  has  a  likeness  all  its  own,  each 
separate  individual,  and  each  little  group  has  a  difference  all 
its  own,  and  the  marvel  of  creation  is  that  no  two  have  ever 
been  found  alike.  Why,  therefore,  should  we  follow  a  less 
natural  tendency  in  the  home  that  expresses  the  individual? 
Why  make  houses  all  alike,  or  appoint  them  for  a  farce,  when 
comedy  or  serious  drama  is  to  be  the  play? 

The  logical  way  to  furnish  a  home  is  to  see  first  to  the  nature 
of  the  family,  and  then  separate  the  parts  into  the  principal 
sides,  and  these  sides  into  their  unit  of  composition.  In  other 
words,  assemble  in  characteristic  form  the  furnishings  and  ma- 
terial for  each.  The  drawing-room,  for  instance,  is  a  room  for 
congregation,  spaced  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  opportunity  for 
intimate,  or  friendly  conversation,  proper  audience  to  music, — - 
if  there  be  not  a  separate  music  room, — and  altogether  a  place 
to  withdraw  for  social  purposes,  the  character  of  which  is  to  be 
determined  by  the  likings  of  the  family.  Two  cosy  chairs  here, 
pleasantly  inviting  for  a  dainty  cup  of  tea  and  a  little  talk,  a 
larger  group  there,  with  perhaps  a  table  and  a  spacious  sofa 
or  Davenport.  Another  grouping  of  a  stiffer  form  to  fit  the 
need  of  just  a  moment  stopping,  with  lighter  chairs  or  seats  that 
lend  themselves  to  ready  moving.  With  this  idea  in  mind,  the 
room  will  never  lose  its  meaning  and  cannot  fail  to  attract  and 
interest  just  by  virtue  of  its  being  true  to  itself. 

The  Library,  on  the  other  hand,  is  neither  for  general  congre- 
gation, nor  social  functions,  but  a  space  where  books  and  read- 
ing matter  is  conspicuous,  and  where  lights,  easy  chairs  and 
comfortable  corners  invite  one  to  thoughtful  things,  to  discus- 
sion and  study,  to  exchange  of  opinion,  and  the  enjoyment  of 
knowledge.  It  is  therefore  logically  furnished  when  the  group- 
ings and  the  fittings  carry  out  a  scene  for  the  action  of  all  that 
is  intellectual  and  delightfully  instructive. 

The  Dining-Room  we  find  more  personal  and  should  there- 
fore be  more  private.  While  its  function  is  so  well  known  that 
its  furnishing  logically  takes  care  of  itself,  as  it  were,  just  a 

201 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

suggestion  may  be  appropriate  as  to  its  relation  to  the  "under- 
standing" of  the  physical.  The  writer  once  heard  a  boy  say  he 
cared  not  what  he  ate  as  long  as  he  was  filled  up,  and  while 
this  is  the  extreme  of  ignorance,  yet  very  few  boys,  or  grown- 
ups realize  what  eating  can  mean,  or  the  art  that  may  be  de- 
veloped in  the  operation,  and  while  much  attention  has  been 
given  to  the  manner,  or  form,  in  eating,  little  thought  has  been 
devoted  to  the  principles  of  the  act  itself.  The  Scientific  way  to 
eat,  and  the  surroundings  that  would  encourage  the  under- 
standing of  brain  feeding,  and  nerve  feeding,  and  the  higher 
psychic  nourishment,  as  well  as  the  feeding  of  muscle  and 
blood,  would  be  genuinely  worth  the  effort.  Perhaps  the  form 
and  setting  of  the  furnishings  is  as  logical  as  may  be  had,  but 
great  care  should  be  given  to  the  choice  of  the  chairs,  that  they 
fit  the  body  as  restfully  and  properly  as  an  upright  position 
allows.  Some  of  the  straight-backed  chairs  of  our  grandparents' 
time  were  more  intelligently  adapted  here.  To  eat  in  a  reclin- 
ing or  uncomfortable  position  is  not  a  wise  habit. 

Again,  little  need  be  said  of  the  logical  way  to  furnish  a 
Bed-Room,  further  than  that  the  bed  as  the  motive  of  the 
room,  cannot  be  too  carefully  considered  as  to  quality,  comfort, 
simplicity,  and  form.  It  is  the  place  upon  which  one  lays  all 
one's  burdens  at  night  and  wakes  refreshed  for  the  day.  It  is 
the  custom  to  mount  to  it,  if  not  in  the  old  step-ladder  way,  at 
least  up  the  stairs  from  one's  lesser  private  life,  to  the  inner 
sacred  shrine.  Here  it  is  logical  to  furnish  with  sentiment, 
with  religious  devotion,  and  with  personal  ease  in  mind.  It  is 
the  haven  of  the  spirit,  and  as  such  it  should  express  a  rever- 
ence for  all  inspiration  needed. 

While  the  Foyer,  or  Front  Hall,  is  in  one  sense  the  most 
public  portion  of  the  house,  in  another  it  becomes  extremely 
exclusive,  if  properly  treated.  It  is  the  place  for  the  hesitation, 
transition,  and  the  conclusion  of  the  will.  One  passes  from 
one  portion  of  the  house  to  the  other  by  way  of  the  hall,  giving 
it  the  function  of  blending  together  these  moods.  A  friend  ar- 
rives, one  hesitates  a  moment,  and  then  selects  the  room  for  the 
occasion.  A  stranger  enters,  and  one  decides  his  reception. 
The  Hall  is  the  outer  expression  of  the  inner  private  life,  and 

202 


THE    MEANING    OF    ROOMS 

from  a  furnishing  standpoint  most  fascinating,  for  the  reason 
that  dignity,  good  taste,  and  ample  sympathy  should  preside, 
while  formal  furnishings  should  be  their  vehicle.  It  is  perhaps 
the  most  difficult  room  from  a  logical  furnishing  standpoint,  but 
when  successfully  appointed,  the  scene  is  here  set  for  the  result 
of  the  best  of  one's  individuality. 


203 


CHAPTER  VIII 

DOMESTIC  INDEPENDENCE  AND  HOSPITALITY 

"You  must  therefore  love  me  myself  and  not  my  circumstances  if 
tve  are  to  be  friends" 

"Are  there  no  flowers  on  earth ,  in  heaven  no  stars, 
That  we  must  place  in  such  low  things  our  trust?" 

Perhaps  no  one  domestic  virtue  has  gone  so  far  afield  of  its 
real  meaning,  and  been  subjected  to  more  kinds  of  artificialities 
and  misinterpretations  than  that  of  hospitality. 

To  take  in  the  stranger,  or  wayfarer,  to  give  refreshment  to 
the  traveller,  and  "treat  with  kindness  but  without  regard,"  was 
the  original  intent,  when  the  distances  were  great,  public 
taverns  few,  and  the  only  means  of  getting  from  place  to  place 
was  by  the  exercise  of  one's  personal  ingenuity.  "Hospitate" 
was  both  hospital  and  hospitality.  The  taking  in  of  the  sick, 
the  halt,  and  the  blind  became  too  great  a  burden  for  private 
means,  and  so  public  institutions  were  established  with  the  idea 
of  receiving  the  more  needy  guests  of  a  town,  until  now  under 
the  name  "Hospital"  every  sort  of  sickness  and  helplessness  is 
cared  for,  from  that  requiring  but  temporary  rest  for  recupera- 
tion, to  that  of  permanently  housing  the  poor  and  the  insane. 
Thus  has  the  needy  traveller  been  publicly  provided  for  by 
the  combined  efforts  and  support  of  the  community,  leaving 
the  stranger  to  care  for  himself  in  the  independent  way  afforded 
by  hotels,  inns,  and  other  public  stopping  places,  that  have  be- 
come a  part  of  every  town  and  hamlet  in  its  hospitality. 

In  a  general  way  there  is  left  but  the  possible  wayfarer  of 
the  moment,  who  perchance  may  need  for  his  personal  welfare 
but  a  bit  of  information,  or  a  kindly  word  in  passing.  The 
hotel,  the  hospital,  and  other  public  institutions  having  taken 
the  place  of  the  home  in  the  provision  for  the  guest  of  the  first 
meaning,  leaving  under  the  head  of  hospitality  the  bidden  guest 

204 


DOMESTIC    INDEPENDENCE    AND    HOSPITALITY 

of  one's  own  choice,  the  friend  of  the  family,  or  of  a  member 
thereof.  While  friends  are  formed  and  friendship  developed 
through  various  avenues  of  interest,  circumstances,  contact,  and 
natural  happenings,  to  be  virtuous  and  worthy  the  name,  all 
should  be  rooted  deep  in  human  sympathy  and  service,  and  no 
other  should  be  welcome  to  one's  inner  life.  The  hospitality 
that  prides  itself  upon  the  flow  of  wine  and  the  number  of 
guests  supplied,  the  constant  going  and  coming,  and  the  "open 
house"  program,  either  gives  unduly  of  itself  and  makes  for 
friendly  poverty,  or  provides  the  mere  shell  of  the  real  thing 
that  cannot  but  end  in  destruction,  and  is  as  vulgar  in  appear- 
ance as  any  other  artificial  imitation  of  reality. 

The  home  as  the  private  and  personal  life  of  the  family 
should  be  hospitable  only  to  those  who  through  contact  with 
this  inner  self  are  made  to  create  a  mutual  joy  and  understand- 
ing. The  will  of  the  host  should  be  to  give  of  himself,  and  the 
will  of  the  guest  to  do  likewise.  The  degenerating  idea  so  com- 
mon to  present  times  of  expecting  every  sort  of  provision  for 
one's  personal  ease  and  enjoyment,  every  luxury,  and  every 
attention,  not  of  the  heart  but  of  the  bank-book,  makes  the 
coming  of  the  modern  guest  too  often  a  thing  of  financial, 
rather  than  friendly  and  intimate  concern,  for  while  the  visitor 
if  bidden  in  good  faith,  has  every  reason  to  expect  the  attention 
of  a  right  good  welcome,  and  pleasure  in  the  visit,  it  is  alto- 
gether unreal  and  therefore  unright,  that  it  should  depend 
upon  the  number  of  courses  at  the  table,  or  the  number  of  auto- 
mobiles at  the  door.  Such  a  guest  is  a  troublesome  concern  to 
the  host,  and  a  sham  unto  himself,  reaching  out  to  the  hand 
only,  of  him  who  entertains,  with  too  faint  thought  as  to  the 
quality  of  the  heart.  This  false  sentiment  that  seems  to  be 
hovering  over  the  custom  of  the  present  guest  chamber  is,  how- 
ever, not  so  serious,  even  when  it  seems  to  exist,  for  the  reason 
that  it  is  not  so  much  a  fact  as  an  appearance.  What  the 
guest  really  wants  is  that  sense  of  freedom  and  personal  ease 
that  comes  from  the  unrestricted  use  of  another's  environment 
as  one  would  use  one's  own,  a  visit,  a  change  of  scene,  and  the 
freedom  that  is  acquired  in  a  hotel,  coupled  with  the  delight  of 
having  it  cheerfully  provided  and  offered  by  a  particular  host 

205 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

of  one's  choice.  If  therefore  there  might  be  a  mutual  under- 
standing that  this  condition  would  be  assured,  all  artificial  ef- 
fort for  its  creation  would  give  way  to  a  study  of  actual  and 
charming  relationship  that  would  make  the  program  of  enter- 
tainment turn  upon  a  personal  and  friendly  note,  rather  than  a 
material  and  selfish  one.  No  matter  how  elaborate  the  sur- 
roundings, or  how  constant  the  attendance  upon  one's  wishes, 
for  permanent  happiness  there  is  no  enjoyment  like  the  gift  of 
independence,  and  unless  the  guest  can  be  made  to  feel  this, 
together  with  the  charm  of  the  atmosphere  of  another's  home, 
the  variety  of  different  customs,  as  they  touch  upon  the  more 
inner  sacred  chamber  of  an  individuality  than  may  be  had  in 
other  social  intercourse,  the  host  or  hostess  will  have  but 
poorly  succeeded  in  the  entertainment  of  the  guest. 
.  Since  the  beginning  of  time  independence  has  been  the  cry  of 
|  the  personal  soul.  Bodily  freedom  first,  from  devouring  beasts, 
I  and  the  vengeance  of  the  Great  Spirit ;  National  and  Religious 
1  independence ;  political,  social,  industrial,  economic ;  freedom  of 
speech;  free  education;  the  independence  of  woman;  and  the 
last  and  perhaps  the  most  basic  and  important  that  is  now  to 
be  declared  is  domestic  independence,  the  thought  that  the  home 
requires  of  one  only  what  one  chooses  to  give,  and  can  readily 
give  for  its  support.  It  must  first,  however,  be  made  so  much 
a  part  and  delight  of  each  life  that  devotion  to  the  home 
purpose,  will  be  a  perpetual  pleasure,  not  the  permanent  and 
pressing  duty,  so  often  found  to  exist,  holding  the  mind  as  it 
were  in  a  vice;  oppressed  by  reason  of  the  ever-broadening 
number  of  demands,  and  that  helpless  feeling  of  being  driven 
beyond  one's  strength  and  resources.  Suppose  five  servants  do 
seem  to  be  required,  or  one  even,  for  the  proper  maintenance  of 
an  establishment,  if  at  any  time  they  may  not  be  had,  let  us  not 
sacrifice  our  lives  to  such  a  catastrophe,  but  rather  cut  the 
garment  to  fit  the  cloth,  and  run  the  house  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  support  it  with  what  may  be  had.  The  help  of  good 
labor  is  most  comforting,  but  if  it  is  not  available,  let  us  still 
live,  and  not  become  so  weak  as  to  give  up  our  domestic  ties 
and  the  personal  value  of  home,  helplessly  dependent  upon  the 
force  of  circumstances.  To  master  one's  situation  by  knowing 

206 


DOMESTIC    INDEPENDENCE    AND    HOSPITALITY 

one's  environment,  to  practice  the  essential  operations,  and  to 
be  sure  of  the  foundation  of  things,  gives  a  sense  of  power  and 
discrimination  that  cannot  but  make  one  equal  to  any  emergency 
that  may  arrive.  This  spirit  of  independence  becomes  a  power- 
ful state  in  maintaining  the  house,  that  is  not'  only  contagious 
in  the  family,  but  affects  everyone  who  may  come  in  contact 
with  its  influence.  Perhaps  no  one  element  will  induce  greater 
progress  in  the  home  and  its  social  relationship  than  this  feel- 
ing of  being  equal  to  the  situation.  It  is  the  culmination  of 
the  efficiency  system  in  a  nut-shell;  capability,  productivity, 
and  initiative,  being  the  branches  from  which  it  naturally  de- 
velops. 

To  be  dependent  upon  the  presence,  the  efforts,  the  humor,  or 
even  the  ability  of  another ;  to  feel  bound  by  custom,  rule,  regu- 
lation, or  the  expectation  of  a  coming  guest,  is  to  start  the 
beginning  of  an  unnatural  barrier  that  cannot  fail  to  spread 
and  become  destructive  in  its  influence.  Tension  and  nervous- 
ness result.  The  guest  is  sensitive  to  a  confinement  of  thought 
and  feeling  and  the  visit  or  entertainment  is  just  so  much  in- 
jured thereby.  With  the  idea  of  the  freedom  of  the  house, 
coupled  with  a  sympathetic  relationship,  the  efficiency  of  a  visit, 
the  satisfactory  result,  would  be  in  proportion  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  one's  surroundings  and  the  pleasure  taken  in  adaptation 
thereto. 

It  is  well  to  adopt  a  plan  whereby  the  visitors  in  a  home  may 
know  in  the  simplest  way  what  customs  of  the  house  are  usual, 
why  it  fe  necessary  or  not  necessary  to  conform  to  them;  how 
and  where  to  find  any  material  that  may  be  required  at  a  mo- 
ment's notice,  without  disturbing  the  hostess,  or  even  summon- 
ing a  maid,  and  the  program  or  general  plan  of  action  to  be 
carried  out  for  each  particular  visit.  In  this  way  intelligence 
is  developed  as  to  the  surroundings,  it  but  remains  then  to  take 
pleasure  in  the  performance  in  a  free  give-and-take  process.  A 
sort  of  adaptation  of  the  Golden  Rule,  for  no  one  should  accept 
the  hospitality  of  another  unless  he  be  willing  to  do  his  utmost 
in  return,  not  necessarily  by  an  exchange  of  goods,  or  visits, 
but  by  the  giving  of  one's  best  effort  to  the  situation.  Thus 
the  spirit  of  Service  should  prevail  on  both  sides,  the  guest 

207 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

bringing  the  fruits  of  good  will  and  good  cheer,  the  host  mak- 
ing ready  by  preparing  his  offerings  and  delivering  them,  not 
necessarily  with  the  help  of  a  servant,  but  by  way  of  himself, 
unharassed  through  the  effort. 

The  work  of  entertaining  generally,  to  be  successful,  should 
not  fall  too  heavily  upon  the  host.  Each  guest,  whether  for  an 
hour  or  a  day,  should  have  reason  to  feel  a  sense  of  responsi- 
bility and  a  willingness  to  co-operate  in  the  occasion  to  the 
very  best  of  his  or  her  ability.  Most  people  enjoy  looking  after 
themselves,  and  the  independence  of  going  and  coming.  Why 
not  encourage  this  personal  liking  by  devising  ways  and  means 
not  only  to  make  this  possible,  but  to  make  it  most  pleasurable  ? 

The  habitual  use  of  a  Bulletin  Board  in  the  home,  where  all 
information  needed  might  be  had  at  a  glance,  would  be  most 
useful  for  the  visitor,  besides  the  special  directions  that  should 
be  posted  in  the  guest's  chamber,  and  in  other  portions  of  the 
house. 

The  native  joy  in  producing  one's  keep,  which  has  its  ex- 
pression in  being  able  to  take  care  of,  or  help  one's  self,  is  too 
great  to  be  carelessly  ignored.  For  while  it  is  pleasant  at 
times  to  be  waited  upon,  it  is  most  oppressive  when  it  becomes  a 
habit.  Thrice  pleasanter  is  it  to  feel  free  and  able  to  wait  upon 
another. 

And  so  we  would  say  the  model  guest  is  he  who  tarries  in  the 
spirit  of  Service,  to  give  of  himself,  and  to  take  what  is  offered 
in  a  mood  of  reverence,  responsibility,  and  restful  delight,  feel- 
ing it  a  pleasure  and  an  honor  to  be  bidden  into  the  inner  life, 
as  it  were,  of  one's  friend.  For  if  he  cannot  feel  this,  he  should 
not  come.  In  coming  he  shows  his  gratitude,  not  so  much  for 
the  things  with  which  he  may  be  provided,  as  for  the  joy  and 
sympathy  offered  in  the  gift  of  friendly  contact.  As  Emerson 
says: 

"I  pray  you,  O  excellent  wife,  not  to  cumber  yourself  and  me 
to  get  a  rich  dinner  for  this  man  or  this  woman  who  has  alighted 
at  our  gate,  nor  a  bed-chamber  made  ready  at  too  great  cost. 
These  things,  if  they  are  curious  in  them,  they  can  get  for  a 
dollar  at  any  village.  But  let  this  stranger,  if  he  will,  in  your 
looks,  in  your  accent  and  behavior,  read  your  heart  and  earnest- 

208 


DOMESTIC   INDEPENDENCE   AND   HOSPITALITY 

ness,  your  thought  and  will,  which  he  cannot  buy  at  any  price, 
in  any  village  or  city ;  and  which  he  may  well  travel  fifty  miles, 
and  dine  sparely  and  sleep  hard,  in  order  to  behold.  Certainly 
let  the  board  be  spread  and  let  the  bed  be  dressed  for  the  travel- 
ler; but  let  not  the  emphasis  of  hospitality  lie  in  these  things. 
Honor  to  the  house  where  they  are  simple  to  the  verge  of  hard- 
ship, so  that  then,  the  intellect  is  awake,  and  reads  the  laws  of 
the  Universe,  the  soul  worships  truth  and  love;  honor  and 
courtesy  flow  into  all  deeds." 


209 


CHAPTER    IX 

DINNER 

"All  the  arts  wait  at  my  table,  every  man  of  quality  take  sanctuary 
here!    I  will  be  patron  to  twenty  liberal  sciences" 

It  avails  little  to  know  what  ought  to  be  done,  if  you  do  not 
know  how  it  can  be  done.  To  give  a  dinner  without  a  maid, 
a  butler,  or  a  cook,  one  must  know  how  to  plan,  to  execute, 
to  enjoy  the  work,  and  to  appear  at  the  feast  as  fresh,  affable, 
and  recuperated  as  if  having  come  from  a  walk  in  the  garden, 
or  a  chat  with  a  friend. 

While  this  is  not  difficult  for  almost  any  would-be  hostess, 
yet  it  might  be  suggestive  to  describe  one  of  the  Dinners 
given  at  the  Experiment  Station  as  a  sample  of  such  possibil- 
ity, even  though  it  may  not  in  detail  appeal  to  the  reader. 

The  ideal,  or  first  thought  that  comes  to  one  in  consider- 
ation of  the  character  of  such  entertaining  is,  we  take  it,  good 
company.  One  may  enjoy  a  dinner  with  interesting  compan- 
ions and  hardly  realize  what  is  being  served  in  the  way  of 
food.  On  the  other  hand,  uncongenial,  or  disagreeable  guests 
would  make  the  most  perfect  dish  unpalatable  to  a  sensitive 
member  of  the  party. 

Of  course  the  menu  should,  and  generally  does,  have  care- 
ful attention,  and  the  inclination  of  the  good  hostess  is  to 
bountifully  give  of  the  best  she  has  to  offer.  Second  to  good 
company,  then,  it  would  seem  to  the  writer  is  smoothness,  ease 
and  comfort  in  the  service,  beauty  of  setting,  order  in  the 
progress,  and  individuality  in  the  atmosphere. 

The  Dining-Room  is  the  most  intimate  room  in  the  home, 
of  those  devoted  to  social  uses,  and  the  gathering  of  friends 
about  one's  table  is  an  invitation  to  enter  into  personal  under- 
standing, as  well  as  close  and  friendly  touch  with  another.  No 
one  would  accept  therefore  in  good  faith  unless  willing  and 
happy  to  partake  in  this  form  of  relationship. 

210 


AN  "EFFICIENCY"    DINNER 

The  conditions  in  the  air,  that  are  most  fitted  to  the  psy- 
chological success  of  a  dinner,  are  such  as  make  for  a  free, 
happy  flow  of  conversation,  good  feeling,  and  original  thought. 
Everything  of  a  material  form  would  be  subservient  to  the  per- 
sonal, so  that  in  the  choice  of  the  menu,  and  in  the  serving 
thereof,  care  should  be  taken  to  assure  the  most  efficient  and 
tactful  management  to  this  end. 

There  were  two  reasons  in  the  mind  of  those  at  the  Sta- 
tion for  attempting  this  form  of  entertainment  without  as- 
sistance. First,  to  standardize  the  serving  of  meals  generally 
that  may  at  times,  for  any  reason  whatsoever,  have  to  be  ar- 
ranged without  help  in  the  Dining-Room,  and  second,  because 
to  properly  establish  a  right  sense  of  domestic  independence, 
one  must  be  able  not  only  to  do  the  necessary  things  in  each 
department  of  the  house,  but  to  do  them  in  a  satisfying  way 
and  in  a  manner  expressive  of  one's  ideals.  Not  that  having 
a  dinner  party  is  essential,  or  the  doing  without  human  serv- 
ice a  wise  choice,  even  though  there  is  a  feeling  of  joy  in  the 
elimination  of  a  strange  personality  in  the  room  and  a  re- 
lief in  the  concern  for  "those  who  are  to  eat  after,"  as  well 
as  in  the  waste  and  expense  in  the  case,  but  if  a  hostess  can 
effectively  meet  this  test,  and  successfully  fulfill  the  function 
of  manager,  cook,  waitress,  and  the  charming  head  of  the 
table,  she  has  mastered  at  least  in  her  own  mind,  many  a  lesser 
situation,  in  the  solution  of  this  greater  one. 

Although  independence  and  originality  are  both  to  be  care- 
fully considered,  just  enough  conventionality, — or  the  following 
of  the  prevailing  custom — is  a  wise  manner  of  proceeding,  for 
the  reason  that  it  encourages  ease  and  smoothness  in  the  service, 
by  virtue  of  the  guests  knowing  what  to  expect,  and  therefore 
not  having  their  attention  too  absorbed  in  the  material  detail, 
therefore  the  food  to  be  described  was  chosen  with  the  idea  of 
the  demands  of  the  usual,  formal  courses,  care  being  taken  to 
supply  such  things  as  needed  the  least  trouble  and  time  in  prep- 
aration for  the  service  of  ten  covers. 

The  table  was  prepared  and  decorated  early  in  the  day.  A 
large  revolving  silver  salver,  serving  the  purpose  of  a  center- 
piece, as  well  as  a  server,  and  bearing  some  choice  roses,  which 

211 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

were  also  circled  about  underneath  in  interesting  antique  silver 
holders.  The  china  used  was  Rose  Medallion,  and  the  cloth  of 
Japanese  embroidery.  A  rose  at  each  place  indicated,  with  the 
name-card,  the  placing  of  the  guests,  and  the  shaded  lights  and 
glimmer  of  the  silver  side-table,  or  revolving  Dumb-Butler, 
added  to  the  pleasant  and  festive  atmosphere  of  the  room. 

After  the  arrival  of  the  friends  in  the  Drawing-Room,  the 
hostess  withdrew  for  the  fewest  of  moments  to  place  the  con- 
tents of  the  electric  "fireless  cooker"  compartments  upon  the 
silver  dishes  heated  for  the  purpose,  garnished  and  placed  them 
rapidly  upon  the  dumb-butler,  returning  to  the  guests  with  a 
tray  of  drinks  and  dainties  that  had  been  prepared  and  placed 
in  the  ice-chest  ready  for  serving.  As  the  food,  to  be  served 
hot,  had  been  put  into  the  dishes  at  maximum  heat,  the  little 
delay  in  reaching  the  Dining-Room  mattered  not,  although  there 
was  an  electric  plate  warmer  upon  the  lowest  shelf  of  the  dumb- 
butler  to  be  used  as  necessary. 

The  first  course  was  grape  fruit  centered  with  seeded  white 
grapes  prepared  early  in  the  day  and  cooled.  Next,  a  celery 
soup  that  had  been  poured  while  boiling,  into  thermos  pitchers, 
and  was  now  ready  to  serve  in  tiny  Japanese  bowls  upon  brass 
standards,  just  in  front  of  each  plate.  Each  grape-fruit  plate 
was  placed  in  turn  upon  the  center-piece  with  a  direct  and  easy 
motion  and  revolved  to  the  hostess,  who  deposited  the  skins  in 
a  handsome  medallion  bowl  standing  on  the  lowest  shelf  of  the 
dumb-butler,  the  silver  in  a  little  wooden  basket,  and  the  dishes 
at  the  side,  leaving  ample  room  for  the  plates  of  each  course 
to  be  handled  in  the  same  way.  While  at  first  thought  it  may 
appear  a  confusing  operation,  in  actual  practice  it  is  orderly 
and  convenient,  one  guest  following  another  as  attention  is 
attracted,  and  each  plate  has  quite  completed  its  object.  It  but 
requires  a  little  skill  on  the  part  of  the  hostess,  that  no  noise  of 
unnecessary  movements  be  allowed  in  the  management  of  this 
lowest  tray.  The  little  soup  bowls  may  be  returned  to  the  origi- 
nal place,  or,  put  in  turn  upon  the  silver  salver.  A  roll,  a  pat 
of  butter,  a  biscuit  and  a  bit  of  unleavened  bread  was  to  be  found 
upon  each  bread  and  butter  plate,  and  now  the  meat  course  was 
the  next  dish  scheduled.  The  host  in  the  meantime  having 

212 


AN  "EFFICIENCY"    DINNER 

carved  a  boned  turkey  in  pieces  convenient  for  each  to  serve  him 
or  herself  from  the  center.  To  the  right  was  a  dish  of  baked 
brown  rice  with  mushrooms.  Next  to  this  some  finely  sliced 
string  beans  and  carrots,  and  still  next  a  pretty  form  of  cran- 
berry, all  arranged  in  the  order  to  make  it  convenient  for  one  to 
help  one's  self  to  meat,  for  instance,  while  another  might  be 
serving  herself  to  a  vegetable.  The  matter  of  personal  serving 
was  as  each  felt  disposed.  As  this  course  moved  from  the  table 
to  the  second  tray  of  the  dumb-butler,  the  next  course  was  put 
in  its  place ;  plates  of  deliciously  prepared  chiffonade  salad  with 
cheese,  crackers,  ripe  olives,  and  almonds,  circled  in  turn  to  each 
guest.  Maple  ice-cream  was  the  dessert,  frozen  in  the  afternoon 
by  "James"  the  electric  motor,  and  packed  in  a  thermos  box 
awaiting  in  perfect  form  the  hour  for  use.  Large  ripe  figs  pre- 
served in  syrup,  and  some  little  pound  cakes  accompanied  this 
course,  after  which  the  party  returned  to  the  Drawing-Room 
for  coffee  and  bonbons,  leaving  everything  in  orderly  routine 
upon  the  five  trays  of  the  Dumb-Butler,  to  be  quickly  rolled  to 
the  electric  dishwasher,  incinerator,  and  food-closet  after  the 
departure  of  the  guests. 

Not  for  a  moment  would  the  writer  suggest  that  such  an 
affair  entailed  no  work,  for  from  the  selection  of  those  who  would 
form  the  most  congenial  company,  to  the  washing  of  the  last 
cup,  an  intelligent  effort  was  necessary,  but  with  careful  plan- 
ning, and  particular  attention,  the  time  and  strength,  as  well 
as  the  money  required,  may  easily  be  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and 
the  whole  performance  carried  through  with  one  pair  of  hands, 
and  about  four  hours  of  actual  labor.  The  boned  turkey  is  prac- 
tically prepared  by  the  butcher.  Any  skillful  meat-man  if  given 
sufficient  notice,  will  attend  to  this,  allowing  the  bones  to  be 
roasted  in  the  same  vessel  if  desired ;  any  flavoring  or  seasoning 
one  prefers  may  also  be  added  to  taste,  and  the  whole  placed  in 
the  electric  oven  automatically  arranged  to  do  the  work  on 
scheduled  time. 

The  vegetables  and  salad  may  also  be  prepared  in  the  early 
afternoon,  the  cream  frozen  and  the  little  dainties  put  in  place. 
In  fact  there  is  no  excuse  for  the  entire  dinner  not  being  com- 
pleted at  least  an  hour  before  the  time  appointed,  so  that  a  rest- 

213 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

ful  toilet,  and  the  proper  making  ready  to  receive  one's  friends, 
may  gracefully  complete  the  last  touch,  when  one  acquires  the 
crowning  satisfaction  at  least  of  feeling  she  has  given  of  her 
best,  in  knowledge,  attention,  skill,  labor  and  thoughtful  con- 
sideration, which  cannot  fail  to  produce  an  atmosphere — the 
result  of  thoroughly  appreciating  every  present  condition — 
that  should  make  the  guests  happy  in  assembling. 


CHAPTER    X 

CHILDREN    AND    THE    EFFICIENCY    SYSTEM 

"/  am  a  young  person,  but  not  therefore  impotent" 

But  what  of  the  children  under  the  Efficiency  System? 

A  question  so  often  asked  the  writer  that  it  deserves  in  this 
volume  a  little  space  all  its  own,  not  so  much  for  the  putting 
down  of  either  the  facts,  or  the  theories  of  the  subject,  as  to 
outline  the  natural  principles  around  which  the  children  develop 
in  a  free  and  independent  way  through  an  orderly  and  creative 
consciousness  that  seems  to  relate  them  to  the  same  method  of 
action  as  that  accepted  by  the  parents  and  the  household  of 
which  they  are  a  part.  For  they  take  to  the  idea  without 
question  and  become  the  best  kind  of  students. 

To  have  a  clear  conception  of  what  you  want  to  do  before 
you  do  it,  is  as  productive  of  self-control  and  self-reliance  in 
block-building  as  in  making  out  a  household  budget.  To  have 
the  habit  encouraged  of  asking  the  most  intelligent  questions 
possible,  is  as  useful  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  child  as  the 
adult.  Common  sense  and  judgment  result  just  as  readily  and 
effectively  from  experience  in  play,  as  in  work.  The  fair  deal 
in  practice,  is  the  joy  of  youth  and  the  crowning  delight  in  all 
games ;  and  discipline  and  reward  on  the  whole,  is  perhaps  better 
appreciated  by  that  acute  childlike  sense  of  justice  than  by  all 
the  arguments  and  methods  devised  by  his  elders. 

These,  as  the  six  finer  principles  of  the  Efficiency  System,  con- 
trol or  lead  to  the  working  of  the  other  six,  so  that  it  becomes 
merely  a  matter  of  a  customary  form  of  approach  for  the  child, 
as  well  as  the  parent  that  helps  the  self-development  of  both. 
We  are  too  prone  to  look  upon  childhood  as  a  merely  physical, 
or  animal  period  of  existence,  and  treat  it  as  though  it  were 
incapable  of  any  other  form  of  appreciation,  whereas  in  truth 
it  is  perhaps,  the  most  sensitively  spiritual  age  of  man, — unless 
it  be  the  very  aged, — and  more  subject  to  reason  than  is  gen- 

215 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

erally  believed,  so  that  while  the  intelligent  guiding  of  the  in- 
creasing energy  of  the  child  should  be  one's  first  concern — for 
energy  develops  with  normal  use — such  concern  should  not  limit 
itself  to  the  purely  physical,  or  even  mental  but  bear  in  mind 
constantly  the  constructive  and  altogether  higher  power  of  the 
psychic  form  of  vitality  coupled,  or  interpenetrating  the  bodily, 
and  always  present  and  active  in  child  life.  To  properly  appeal 
to  the  childish  imagination  is  therefore  to  create  a  condition  that 
will  automatically  sweep  all  before  it.  This  the  Efficiency  Sys- 
tem can  do  for  the  reason  that  it  works  through  a  series  of  pic- 
tures rather  than  through  a  stilted  order  of  exercises.  It 
makes  a  practice  first  and  always  of  starting  with  a  vision,  and 
then  filling  in  with  all  the  mental  pictures  that  are  obtainable  in 
relation  to  the  thing  desired.  This  makes  the  spiritual  sense 
lead  the  way  to  all  action,  followed  closely  by  the  moral  thought 
of  the  rights  of  other  people  and  the  justice  in  the  mode  of  pro- 
cedure, and  the  mental  working  of  how  to  go  about  it  to  realize 
one's  desire,  together  with  the  physical  exercise  of  practice  in 
the  detail.  Thus  the  individual  concept  is  fostered  through  giv- 
ing it  a  more  general  relationship. 

The  child  is  delighted  to  engineer  his  own  movements.  The 
necessity  for  repression  gives  way  to  instruction  in  the  liberty  of 
action.  The  child  realizes  from  its  elders  that  the  only  control 
needed  is  that  of  knowing  the  laws  in  the  case,  natural  and 
social,  and  conforming  thereto,  which  after  all  is  the  highest 
sort  of  self-control,  or  self-government,  and  the  parent  soon  finds 
that  the  subject  of  discipline  takes  care  of  itself  by  properly 
encouraging  both  the  spiritual  as  well  as  the  physical  energy  to 
natural  and  spontaneous  expression.  The  normal  child,  even 
ever  so  young,  has  a  keen  sense  of  its  own  latent  resources.  It 
likes  to  feel  free  to  follow  its  own  inclinations,  and  is  independ- 
ently disposed  from  the  beginning.  What  an  unnatural  pro- 
cedure it  is  then  to  suppress  this  constructive  disposition  by  any 
method  of  punishment,  inhibition,  or  servile  attendance,  further 
than  is  necessary  to  lead  it  in  orderly  fashion  toward  realizing 
its  own  desires. 

The  nurse  becomes  an  abomination  when  considered  in  the 
light  of  the  efficiency  system,  except  in  cases  of  sickness,  or  help- 

216 


CHILDREN    AND    THE    EFFICIENCY    SYSTEM 

lessness,  for  the  reason  that  according  to  the  servile  custom  of 
society,  she  is  supposed  to  do  for  the  child  what  the  child  would 
rather  do  for  itself,  if  encouraged  to  learn  the  way,  but  will  not 
so  long  as  there  is  an  easier  method  of  arriving,  and  the  spirit 
of  play,  or  pleasant  working  of  the  imagination  is  lacking  to 
rightly  guide  the  hand.  This  of  course  would  require  more  at- 
tention and  intelligence  than  is  usually  employed  by  the  average 
servant,  but  the  rewards  in  later  life  from  the  right  kind  of  care 
in  developing  initiative  at  the  earliest  possible  age,  would  be  of 
everlasting  value.  From  the  age  of  three,  children  should  have 
instruction  to  make  them  self-reliant,  not  nurses  to  make  them 
helpless.  Just  as  little  as  possible  should  be  done  for  the 
little  ones  if  we  are  to  have  strong  men  and  women,  but 
everything  in  the  world  should  be  considered  in  relation  to  them ; 
keeping  their  confidence  and  love  at  any  cost  by  letting  them 
feel  they  can  be  trusted.  There  is  no  human  problem  that  does 
not  center  about  the  child,  and  no  avenue  of  research  requires 
more  definite  and  adequate  knowledge  of  Nature's  ways.  The 
younger,  like  the  older  generation,  yearn  for  personal  liberty, 
and  as  liberty  we  know  can  be  had  only  at  the  cost  of  respon- 
sibility and  obedience  to  natural  law,  instruction  and  perse- 
verance to  this  end  should  be  the  goal  of  each  day's  training 
and  not  merely  obedience  to  force. 

Cleanliness,  for  instance,  is  a  hygienic  necessity  and  a  sign 
of  good  breeding,  yet  the  boy  or  girl  had  better  be  a  little  less 
clean,  if  it  be  the  best  his  effort  can  do,  than  made  habitually 
spotless  by  another.  So  the  child  should  pick  up  his  own  toys 
and  other  articles,  and  place  them  in  proper  manner,  not  be- 
cause it  helps  the  grown-ups,  for  it  is  generally  much  easier  to 
do  it  one's  self  than  to  persuade  the  little  ones  to  the  right  de- 
sire, but  because  it  is  the  Square  Deal  for  the  child,  as  well  as 
everybody  else,  that  he  should  take  care  of  himself  and  his  own, 
and  have  nothing  that  he  cannot  engineer  in  a  way  as  not  to 
unnecessarily  occasion  the  discomfort  of  someone  else.  There 
are  numberless  ways  of  leading  the  young  mind  into  such  a  con- 
viction, and  the  time  should  be  spent  here,  rather  than  in  the 
nursing  of  the  child's  weakness,  for  if  the  principles  of  efficiency 
as  applied  to  liberty  and  independence,  be  applied  at  the  earliest 

217 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

age,  there  will  be  no  problem  of  what  to  do  with  the  child  in 
the  application  of  domestic  independence,  or  the  Efficiency  Sys- 
1  tern ;  the  child  will  take  care  of  himself,  or  herself,  and  do  some- 
what in  caring  for  the  concerns  of  those  to  whom  he  or  she  is 
elated.     The  professional  playmate  would  be  a  wise  help  just 
lere;  interesting  the  child  to  efficiency  practice  through  the 
)lay  instinct.    A  Day  Nursery  might  also  be  incorporated  under 
;hese  principles,  where  children  could  come  in  contact  with  each 
other  and  see  and  take  part  from  time  to  time  in  a  proper  sys- 
em  of  pleasure,  that  would  not  produce  the  ingratitude  and  lack 
>f  reverence  and  sympathy  the  public  institution  is  wont  to  do, 
rhere  everything  is  done  for  the  child  placed  more  or  less  perma- 
lently  under  its  protection,  but  rather  through  short  stays  and 
he  novelty  of  change  would  it  bring  out  the  individual  initiative 
;o  act  more  definitely  at  home  in  an  auto-educational  manner 
:hrough  the  unfolding  of  the  imagination  to  the  value  of  the 
piritual,  as  well  as  the  material  meaning  of  ideals  worked  out 
:hrough  the  understanding  of  these  principles,  thereby  giving 
highly  constructive  outlet  to  that  youthful  energy  so  abun- 
lant  in  the  normal  modern  child  and  so  often  dangerously  re- 
cessed, or  again  riotously  allowed  to  run  rampant. 
|      The  Child  and  the  Efficiency  System  belong  together.     The 
I  child  because  of  being  Nature's   own  material,   and  Scientific 
|  Management,  because  it  follows  Nature's  form  of  operating. 
f  They  are  closely  related,  and  everything  that  is  related  should 
move  as  one. 


218 


CHAPTER    XI 

THE    BODY    IN    MOTION 

"And  in  man  or  woman  a  clean,  strong,  supple,  firm-fibered  body 
is  more  beautiful  than  the  most  beautiful  face" 

"01 1  say  these  are  not  the  parts  and  poems  of  the  body  only,  but  of 

the  soul. 
Oil  say  now  these  are  the  soul" 

The  quality  of  bodily  motion  is  one  of  the  most  neglected  fac- 
tors of  every-day  life.  It  is  pathetic  to  see  the  average  woman 
and  man  moving  about  in  the  business  of  living,  with  such  utter 
disregard  of  the  effect  each  movement  is  slowly  but  surely  hav- 
ing not  only  upon  the  body,  but  upon  the  very  consciousness  of 
the  inner  soul. 

"I  don't  care  how  I  do  it,  so  long  as  I  get  through,"  seems 
to  be  the  prevailing  sentiment  among  workers,  while  about  those 
who  play,  there  is  an  atmosphere  of  preferring  mere  pastime  to 
any  thought  of  improvement,  and  the  leisure  hours  are  either 
times  of  simple  "don't  care,"  or  periods  when  the  devising  of 
the  artificial  and  the  substituting  of  the  unreal  for  the  real, 
seem  to  control. 

The  unthinking  desire  among  women  for  soft,  white  hands, 
is  an  example  of  the  latter,  for  while  fine  even  texture,  untainted 
by  carelessness,  or  misuse,  with  delicate  form, — the  result  of  a 
sensitive  and  fully  expressive  mode  of  action, — is  a  feature  to 
admire,  the  lifeless,  inexpressive,  colorless,  meaningless,  weak 
and  undeveloped,  limp  member  of  a  flabby  and  shapeless  arm,  so 
often  seen  among  so-called  Society  women,  is  something  to  hide 
with  shame,  rather  than  to  expose  with  the  hope  of  admiration, 
because  it  is  unreal  in  its  correspondence  to  any  right-balanced 
feminine  conception.  It  should  be  looked  upon  rather  as  a 
menace  to  the  real  white  hand  as  it  should  be. 

We  have  said  before  and  must  repeat  it  here  that — 

In  every  motion  there  is  a  three-fold  motive.     Whether  one 

219 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

is  conscious  of  it  or  not,  this  triune  effect  is  being  indelibly 
made  a  part  of  one's  entire  personality,  even  of  one's  inner 
self. 

First,  a  motive  of  accomplishment.  Of  doing  the  thing  in 
the  most  direct  and  effective  way. 

Second,  a  motive  of  exhilaration,  or  health  reaction ;  the  re- 
sult of  a  right  conception  of  one's  physical  forces  and  their  use. 

Third,  the  motive  of  beauty,  developed  by  the  right  feeling 
toward  and  for  things,  and  a  sense  of  grace  and  reverence  within 
one's  self. 

Much  time  we  know  has  been  devoted  to  the  easiest  and  best 
manner  of  accomplishment.  It  has  met  the  pressure  of  necessity 
in  competition,  both  economic  and  social.  The  conservation  of 
human  life  is  also  demanding  that  health  shall  have  first  consid- 
eration, and  ways  and  means  are  being  devised  in  every  field  for 
higher  bodily  fitness  in  industry,  as  well  as  in  sports,  but  we 
have  met  with  almost  nothing  up  to  the  present,  that  assures 
proper  consideration  of  the  conservation  of  the  beauty-value 
in  motion.  To  be  sure,  we  have  the  dance,  the  gesture,  the  study 
of  dramatic  expression,  and  so-called  physical  culture,  but  they 
are  all  more  or  less  detached  from  the  work-a-day  world,  and 
are  practiced  by  the  few  only,  as  a  professional  vocation,  or  a 
dilettante  avocation.  The  fact  that  every  movement,  wherever 
and  however  made,  never  fails  to  make  for  a  finer  or  coarser  tex- 
ture of  the  body,  a  more  gracious  and  dignified  bearing,  or  an 
awkward  and  slovenly  one,  and  a  fuller  and  richer  expression  of 
self,  rather  than  the  pinched  and  poor  nature  so  often  met  with 
on  life's  rough  way,  has  not  sufficiently  dawned  upon  the  mind 
of  the  people  generally. 

But  the  importance  of  this  motive  is  paramount  in  that  it  is 
queen  of  the  three.  It  controls  the  finesse  and  the  feeling  with 
which  the  success  of  the  other  two  may  be  gauged,  practically 
developing  a  personality  that  is  preparing  itself  for  higher  and 
higher  achievement. 

While  the  business  of  the  world  has  called  for  "the  getting  of 
things  done,"  the  bodily  cry  has  been  for  freedom  from  discom- 
fort. All  true  value  we  know  is  centered  in  quality,  and  al- 
though Spirituality, — or  the  psychic  sense  of  beauty, — is  the 

220 


THE    BODY    IN    MOTION 

finest  quality  that  endures,  it  is  measured  only  by  a  feeling  of 
charm  in  the  personal  touch. 

Now  what  does  all  this  mean  to  the  house-worker?  Why 
should  it  be  considered  important,  and  how  can  the  element  of 
beauty  be  made  to  play  its  legitimate  part? 

It  means  that  unless  home  occupations  can  be  made  to  give 
back  the  qualities  most  desired  by  women,  they  will  forever  re- 
main common-place  activities,  accomplished  from  a  sense  of 
duty,  or  necessity,  and  in  a  spirit  of  drudgery.  It  means  house- 
work will  never  attract  the  modern  young  maiden,  unless  it  be 
made  attractive  in  personal  pleasure  and  profit,  and  it  means 
further  that  life  demands  in  the  very  cradle  of  its  beginnings, — 
the  home, — perfection  in  the  midst  of  every-day  happenings. 

It  should  be  considered  important  not  only  by  the  worker,  but 
by  all  who  would  think  and  feel,  to  develop  the  highest  motives 
that  are  workable  in  the  so-called  lower  occupations,  for  they 
include  the  masses  and  the  majority  of  folk.  The  home  as  a  uni- 
versal field  of  labor,  should  yield  a  forest  of  knowledge  as  to 
how  to  get  the  most  out  of  work,  and  plant  the  seed  of  appre- 
ciation of  the  spiritual  quality  in  all  honest  effort,  and  while 
the  home-maker  should  consider  the  making  of  the  home  as  her 
professional  pleasure,  the  making  of  herself  through  her  work 
should  be  the  ideal  of  her  every  execution,  not  from  a  foolish 
or  selfish  sense  of  vanity,  but  because  she  is  or  should  be  the 
real  charm  of  it  all,  and  because  the  greatest  educator  yet 
known  is  example. 

The  element  of  beauty  in  personality  can  be  made  to  play  its 
legitimate  part  when  it  interpenetrates  all  that  is  material. 

As  there  can  be  no  life  without  movement,  so  intelligent  mo- 
tion is  the  most  direct  and  effective  developer  of  life's  values. 
"Power  through  repose"  is  a  virtue  for  the  removal  of  abnor- 
mal tension.  It  is  not  the  suppression  of  motion,  for  then  we 
would  not  live.  But  as  practice  for  a  better  control  of  move- 
ment, consciously  controlled  relaxation  is  superior  to  all  other 
methods. 

To  understand  one's  own  body  from  a  motor  standpoint  is  a 
first  need.  To  know  that  although  the  law  of  gravitation  keeps 
up  a  steady  pull  towards  the  earth,  one  can  almost  become  like 

221 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

unto  a  bird  in  feeling.  So  marvelously  constructed  is  man,  that 
even  without  wings,  he  can  have  a  sense  of  walking  upon  air. 
It  is  because  he  can  hitch  his  nature  to  a  star,  and  hold  him- 
self up  with  the  most  spiritual  muscle  of  the  body,  the  muscle 
of  the  diaphragm.  With  the  front  part  of  this  muscle  poised 
well  over  the  great  toe,  and  the  back  of  the  head  holding  up  eas- 
ily and  lightly,  an  imaginary  flexible  string  of  pearls  in  the  form 
of  a  readily  adaptable  spine,  the  poise  for  light  movement  is 
complete.  Now  add  to  this  the  thought  that  no  matter  where 
a  motion  may  lead  one,  a  high-up  diaphragm  and  a  pliable 
spine  will  follow,  and  the  feeling  that  all  right  action  has  its 
first  impulse  in  what  is  called  the  solar  plexus,  and  a  background 
for  bodily  motion  has  been  started,  so  that  whether  dusting  the 
stairs,  or  making  a  bed,  this  related  position  holds. 

To  accomplish  the  most,  the  body  must  be  constantly  trained 
to  respond  to  the  slightest  touch  of  the  mind,  so  there  may  be  no 
time  wasted  in  clumsiness,  or  indefinite  action.  The  shortest 
possible  distance  between  one's  thought  and  the  work  done,  is 
through  a  supple,  pliable,  responsive  body,  made  so  by  the  kind 
of  thought  and  feeling  applied. 

Suppose  one  wishes  to  pick  something  up  from  the  floor,  why 
not  bend  down  for  it  as  lightly  and  gracefully  as  a  child?  It 
is  not  because  age,  or  size  prevents,  for  the  actress  or  dancer 
who  has  both  these,  is  as  lithe  and  easy  as  need  be,  troubled  not 
by  having  to  move  in  this  way,  but  it  is  in  most  cases  because 
the  body  is  not  used  intelligently,  and  often  not  enough.  While 
to  "live  on  the  stairs,"  as  some  maids  say  they  are  expected  to 
do,  is  not  well,  to  constantly  use  an  elevator  and  never  lift  the 
body  up  and  down  steps  is  a  mistake  in  practice.  A  body 
should  be  exercised  in  all  its  parts  every  day,  and  the  exercise 
should  co-ordinate  with  the  mind,  that  is,  the  thought  should 
get  from  every  motion  all  there  is  in  it,  through  a  sense  of 
directness,  a  sense  of  exhilaration,  a  sense  of  touch.  Every 
motion  should  be  made  to  accomplish  the  very  most  possible,  dis- 
couraging the  fluttery,  fidgety,  unsteady  manner  of  attack,  so 
often  met  with,  particularly  among  women,  and  it  should  be  en- 
joyed to  the  utmost,  as  it  cannot  fail  to  be,  the  more  perfect  it 
becomes.  It  should  be  so  contrived  as  to  secure  poise,  expan- 

222 


THE   BODY   IN   MOTION 

sion,  and  uplift,  so  that  a  sense  of  health  may  prevail.  Then  it 
should  in  addition  have  within  it  the  right  feeling  about  what 
is  to  be  done.  Everything  that  is  handled,  for  instance,  should 
be  appreciated  for  itself  if  possible,  but  at  any  rate  in  its  rela- 
tion to  other  things  and  to  life.  A  common  kitchen  tea-kettle, 
if  lifted  as  though  it  were  a  silver  jug,  and  carried  with  the 
care  of  a  rose  jar,  can  be  made  to  contribute  not  only  to  the 
efficiency,  but  the  quality  of  one's  movements.  So  the  handling 
of  delicate  china  and  glass  may  be  as  rapid  as  though  it  were 
tinware,  but  it  adds  immeasurably  to  one's  manner  of  touch. 
There  is  nothing  absurd  in  developing  a  graceful  sense  of  rev- 
erence in  one's  touch  to  be  exercised  in  due  measure  upon  the 
kitchen  pump,  the  frying  pan,  or  the  loaf  of  bread,  as  well  as 
the  lace  handkerchief,  the  choice  book,  or  the  piano  keys.  It 
is  what  it  does  to  the  person,  not  the  thing,  that  is  important, 
and  to  constantly  have  an  attitude  of  quality  for  all  that  is 
outside  of  self  produces  in  time  the  true  quality  in  self.  Such 
personal  education  not  only  leads  to  higher  accomplishment, 
and  better  performed  tasks  generally — when  time  is  not  lost  in 
affectation — but  it  has  enormous  possibilities  for  bodily  culture 
in  the  ordinary  household  movements.  To  feel  the  spirit  work- 
ing and  moving  through  the  body,  in  contact  with  all  things, 
and  to  have  such  practice  a  part  of  the  every-day  routine  con- 
stantly with  one,  in  the  many  times  repeated  tasks  of  the  house, 
is  a  fascinating  and  very  worth-while  sensation,  making  an  effi- 
cient body  by  the  cultivation  of  a  more  active,  enthusiastic,  and 
discriminating  mind  in  relation  to  the  manner  of  bodily  motion, 
encouraging  a  strong  body  through  finer  and  more  intelligent 
co-ordination  of  feeling  and  muscle,  and  a  truly  buoyant  habit 
of  breathing — the  result  of  joy,  expansion,  and  uplift — and  de- 
veloping a  beautiful  body  through  practice  in  the  art  of  being 
filled  with  the  character  of  the  part  to  be  played,  with  a  delicacy, 
ease,  lightness,  grace,  admiration,  charm,  and  reverence  through- 
out the  whole  of  one's  self,  but  especially  in  the  feet  and  hands, 
and  within  the  consciousness  of  the  spirit  of  the  motion  itself. 
All  this  and  more  may  be  the  legitimate  result  of  housework,  in- 
telligently performed. 


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CHAPTER  XII 

THE    BODY    AND    ITS    GARMENTS 

"0  fair  undress,  best  dress!     It  checks  no  vein, 
And  every  flowing  limb  in  pleasure  drowns, 
And  heightens  ease  with  grace" 

Why  do  we  dress?  We  are  told  for  protection,  warmth, 
modesty,  etc.,  and  yet  history  has  it  these  were  not  the  original 
reasons. 

The  first  attempts  in  the  wearing  of  clothes,  according  to  the 
earliest  records,  were  for  the  purpose  of  distinguishing  rank, 
position,  and  birth,  and  the  greatest  number  of  coverings  were 
worn  not  by  those  who  were  of  necessity  exposed  to  climate,  but 
by  the  highest  and  most  protected  in  office.  While  civilization 
has  brought  about  all  kinds  of  modern  necessities  for  the 
wearing  of  various  garments,  these  same  fundamental  truths 
still  hold  as  the  basis  of  fashion-changing,  giving  the  subject 
certain  psychic,  personal  and  class-distinction  meaning,  rather 
than  a  solely  utilitarian  one. 

A  new  style  is  started  by  someone  in  authority,  and  forthwith 
the  whole  world  of  the  hour  falls  in  line,  almost  without  ques- 
tion, gathering  such  force  in  the  current  as  to  defy  public 
opinion,  the  preacher,  parent,  doctor,  and  even  law  itself. 

If  beauty,  or  the  truly  aesthetic,  were  the  initial  cause  of  these 
often  sudden  and  violent  streams  of  fashionable  rush,  there 
would  be  little  question  further  than  how  best  to  arrive  at  the 
goal,  but  unfortunately  the  novel  and  the  commercial  value 
dictate  in  very  large  part  what  shall  and  shall  not  be  worn, 
until  the  woman  feels  herself  a  helpless  victim  upon  the  wave 
of  the  season's  demands.  And  yet  the  rapid  shifts  of  fashion 
have  no  doubt  been  of  use  in  overcoming  a  native  habit  of  con- 
servatism that  is  truly  feminine.  She  has  moved  on,  often  more 
rapidly  than  was  comfortable  to  her  instinct,  through  sheer 
dress  competition. 

224 


THE    BODY    AND    ITS    GARMENTS 

Perhaps  if  we  probe  deep  into  the  woman  heart  and  mind,  we 
can  find  the  real  cause  that  first  moved  her  to  the  thought  of 
clothes,  and  then  made  of  her  a  kind  of  slave,  and  perchance  a 
way  toward  a  new  freedom  even  in  dress  may  suggest  itself.  For 
"let  me  be  dressed  fine  as  I  will,  flies,  worms  and  flowers  exceed 
me  still." 

The  woman  who  dresses  as  beautifully  as  she  knows  how  to 
dress,  likes  to  feel  her  superiority  and  her  personality  extended 
beyond  her  smaller  self,  and  it  should  be  all  to  her  credit,  for 
she  may  wish  to  devote  this  larger  sense  of  ego  to  the  highest 
and  holiest  of  purposes,  as  in  many  cases  we  know  this  to  be 
true.  There  have  been,  however,  two  sad,  yet  strong  reasons 
why  she  has  depended  so  greatly  upon  external  material  for 
this  effect.  First,  because  woman  was  supposed  to  remain  in 
an  undeveloped  state  as  far  as  her  mind  and  her  worldly  status 
was  concerned,  and  leave  to  man  the  full  exercise  of  all  faculties, 
and  also  because  her  religion  was  interpreted  to  declare  the  body 
as  of  the  Earth,  vile  and  corrupt,  something  to  live  apart  from 
and  dominate  as  far  as  possible,  and  to  take  no  real  spiritual  ac- 
count of  it  at  any  time. 

Human  nature  has  always  known  these  sentiments  were  not 
complete  truth  and  yet  it  has  labored  under  the  yoke  of  a  mis- 
taken impression  for  generations.  Men  have  placed  women 
upon  a  pedestal  where  little  activity,  or  comradeship,  was  ex- 
pected of  her,  and  where  draped  in  gorgeous  robes  he  could 
adore  her  in  silence.  With  no  thought  of  resentment,  she  has 
tried  faithfully  to  do  his  bidding  and  return  to  him  the  happi- 
ness he  deserved,  but  her  pedestal  has  become  intolerable,  and 
her  many  changing  robes  are  irksome,  for  the  reason  that  she 
has  not  earned  her  own  way  to  its  heights,  nor  -found  herself  in 
dress  alone,  and  besides  such  placing  isolates  her  from  him  she 
would  be  near.  Far  rather  would  she  descend  for  a  little,  if 
need  be,  in  his  mind — though  not  in  fact — and  work  her  way 
back  to  this  place  where  her  real  self  can  rest  content  with  the 
thought  that  her  own  effort  and  her  own  charm  can  draw  the 
man  she  loves  up  if  need  be  to  her  true  side. 

Woman's  dress  is  more  than  covering,  and  more  than  trinkets 
would  suggest. 

225 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

It  bespeaks  revolutions  and  reformations,  and  carries  with  it 
courts  and  fortunes.  No  great  or  definite  advance  in  civiliza- 
tion but  breaks  away  from  its  traditions  of  dress,  just  because 
it  has  within  it  a"  psychic  something  that  makes  it  in  truth  a 
part  and  an  extension  of  the  personal  life.  The  Body  and  its 
Garments,  and  yet  how  little  the  garment  has  been  related  to 
the  body  as  it  should  be,  the  body  of  poetry,  the  body  of  free 
and  beautiful  action. 

In  time  past,  we  feared  to  show  the  legs,  and  so  to  move  as 
we  would,  they  were  disguised  by  a  great  hoop.  Then  the 
stomach  and  bosom  must  be  bound  out  of  sight,  and  have  little 
or  no  motion  allowed  them.  The  abdomen  becomes  unsightly, 
and  a  lump  is  put  upon  the  back  as  a  balance.  The  neck  and 
head  is  piled  high,  and  the  conspicuous  arms  and  hands  are 
draped  in  long  folds  and  lace.  The  hips  are  enlarged,  and 
again  reduced.  The  back  is  hollowed  in,  and  then  rounded  out, 
so  that  we  never  know  where  the  next  lump,  or  bodily  depres- 
sion will  be  called  for.  All  in  a  vain  effort  to  harmonize  and 
symmetrize  the  female  form  divine,  having  a  vague  sense  of 
physical  fitness,  but  arriving  at  each  realization  through  an 
abnormal  and  artificial  route.  Yet  one  may  conclude  that  the 
present  standards  of  dress  have  been  the  result  of  the  evolution 
and  consciousness  of  bodily  form  and  that  they  plainly  show 
the  process  of  relying  upon  the  garments  to  beautify  and  har- 
monize the  woman  into  a  moving  poem,  a  false  and  unfair  one. 
She  must  do  the  work  in  and  with  herself,  and  the  true  stand- 
ards  of  fashion  will  come  when  the  form  itself  is  made  a  thing 
of  beauty,  and  is  draped  to  enhance  its  own  particular  and 
personal  charm.  Color,  material,  line  and  ornament  will  be  so 
related  to  bodily  expression  as  to  be  unfashionable,  unless  har- 
moniously combined.  There  should  be  a  reasonableness  in  dress 
and  an  adaptation  to  use,  as  well  as  artistic  effect,  for  the  gar- 
ment has  an  influence  upon  the  individual,  just  as  great,  if  not 
greater,  than  the  person  has  upon  the  garment.  This  we  find 
particularly  true  in  the  home,  where  if  one  is  dressed  with  care 
and  becomingness,  one  feels  and  acts  in  a  more  hospitable  mood 
than  if  attired  in  slovenly  manner.  In  fact  clothes  have  a  very 
marked  effect  upon  the  character  and  kind  of  one's  work.  An 

226 


THE    BODY    AND    ITS    GARMENTS 

apron, — which  by  the  way  is  a  weapon  of  defense, — encourages 
careless  and  sloppy  habits,  particularly  after  it  begins  to  be 
somewhat  soiled.  To  work  in  a  truly  defensive  way  and  not 
care  what  happens,  one  need  but  don  an  old  degraded  frock  and 
"pitch  in,"  as  the  saying  goes. 

But  why  should  one  feel  that  old  and  mussy  garments  are 
more  suited  to  a  working  mood  ?  Is  it  not  because  of  the  mussy 
standard  of  housework  that  prevails?  Little  do  we  realize  how 
greatly  the  mode  of  dress  affects  the  manner  of  work  as  well  as 
the  movements  of  the  person.  To  be  particular  with  both,  takes 
perhaps  more  time  in  each  operation,  but  infinitely  less  in  the 
clearing  up  process,  and  the  more  one  works  and  lives  under 
the  influence  of  a  high  standard  of  dress,  the  more  skillful  and 
rapid  becomes  the  nature  of  one's  movements.  The  writer  has 
experimented  many  a  time  by  preparing  dinner  in  an  evening 
gown,  even  with  a  train,  and  in  doing  a  day's  washing,  or  pre- 
serving, in  a  fresh  silk  or  satin  frock,  with  of  course  no  apron, 
and  it  has  always  contributed  to  the  value  of  the  work  and  not 
injured  the  gown  in  the  testing. 

One  of  the  frequent  questions  asked  in  the  servantless  house 
is :  "But  who  goes  to  the  door  ?",  and,  "How  can  you  see  people 
when  you  are  in  the  midst  of  housework?"  The  writer,  how- 
ever, has  never  found  this  embarrassing  for  the  reason  that  she 
works  even  at  the  crudest  of  household  tasks,  dressed  as  though 
at  leisure,  or  at  play,  and  always  with  a  feeling  of  bodily  self- 
respect,  making  the  most  of  the  fact  that  if  a  garment  worn 
for  a  special  occasion,  lends  dignity  and  grace  to  the  scene,  it 
likewise  has  its  potent  influence  upon  the  spirit  and  form  of 
one's  every  occupation.  Extravagant  garments  are  therefore 
not  extravagant  when  they  are  made  to  give  a  reflex  educational 
value, — which  they  can  do,  to  an  astonishing  degree, — but  costly 
clothes  carelessly  worn,  and  valued  only  for  vanity's  sake,  are 
not  only  a  wicked  waste  of  money,  but  a  menace  to  the  wearer. 

A  woman  may  appear  to  dress  a  la  mode,  and  yet  with  quite 
another  motive  in  mind.  Fortunate  is  she  who  can  follow  the 
spirit  of  the  fashion;  can  read  the  inner  meaning  of  the  form 
and  interpret  the  details,  in  relation  to  the  possibilities  of  her 
own  body,  and  not  follow  blindly  and  ignorantly  every  extreme 

227 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

that  is  in  vogue.  Perhaps  the  American  is  too  ready  to  adopt 
and  adapt  the  fashions  of  foreign  lands,  to  think  seriously  of 
the  creation  of  an  art  of  her  own.  For  the  designing,  the  mak- 
ing, and  the  wearing  of  garments  is  a  world  in  itself,  and  needs 
to  be  studied  closely  and  intelligently  if  we  would  understand 
its  fascination  and  its  highest  purpose,  and  not  allow  it  to  play 
a  part  that  is  dangerous  to  character  and  purse  alike. 

Particularly  should  the  subject  of  dress  be  properly  inter- 
preted to  the  child  mind,  for  the  influence  at  this  age  is  lasting 
and  the  impression  strong,  although  the  simple,  loose,  daintily 
designed  children's  clothes  of  to-day  might  teach  the  grown-ups 
a  lesson  in  beauty.  Of  course  the  economics  of  dress  is  every- 
where a  controlling  factor,  but  whatever  is  found  to  give  a 
profit,  is  a  good  economic  investment,  therefore  the  amount  of 
profit  in  dress  should  be  our  first  concern,  and  whatever  adds 
to  the  quality  of  one's  activities,  or  thought  of  environment,  or 
character  is  worth  the  price  of  such  profit.  The  body  first,  then 
the  garments,  and  not  too  many  of  them  for  health's  sake.  The 
beauty  and  perfection  of  the  first  whether  at  rest,  or  in  motion, 
is  the  excuse  for  the  second. 

The  slender,  free,  graceful,  highly  spiritualized  body  that  is 
centered  in  the  thought  of  beauty,  is  worthy  the  garment  that 
would  frame  such  a  soul,  for  the  superiority  of  this  one  is  para- 
mount, and  the  subtle  extension  of  such  a  personality  should  be 
a  blessing  to  all  who  behold. 


228 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  TRAINING  AND  BEAUTY  OF  THE  HAND 

"For  through  the  South,  the  custom  still  commands 
The  gentleman  to  kiss  the  lady's  hands" 

No  writing  on  the  Home  from  the  personal  standpoint  would 
be  complete  without  some  consideration  given  to  the  hand,  for 
this  remarkable  organ  of  the  body  enters  intimately  into  the 
useful,  the  beautiful,  and  the  cultural  side  of  the  house,  and 
through  its  touch,  brings  together  all  that  is  of  the  external, 
to  be  played  upon  by  the  characteristics  of  the  inner  conscious- 
ness and  moulded  into  form. 

The  value  of  one's  individuality  and  the  prophecy  of  its 
ultimate  use  in  the  world,  is  expressed  perhaps  more  definitely 
in  the  hand  even  than  in  the  face,  for  the  reason  that  the  features 
of  the  face  may  mislead  through  immobility,  or  the  inheritance 
of  certain  mimic  tendencies,  while  the  hand  has  no  such  means 
of  hiding  its  real  meaning  either  in  its  shape  or  movements. 

As  the  foot  is  related  to  the  emotional  nature  of  the  indi- 
vidual, so  the  hand  suggests  the  kind  of  thought  and  mentality 
to  be  found  back  of  it.  In  fact  the  connection  between  the 
hand  and  brain  is  so  direct,  that  what  the  fingers  are  made  to  do, 
reacts  immediately  in  developing  the  mind.  It  actually  seems 
to  make  little  difference  which  is  educated,  provided  the  educa- 
tion is  of  the  right  kind,  for  mind-training  that  does  not  lead 
to  action  is  abnormal  and  unsafe,  and  hand  culture  that  con- 
siders merely  the  beauty  of  the  external  surface,  affects  the 
brain  but  in  superficial  manner. 

Of  course  all  hands  have  certain  characteristics  in  common, 
and  unless  deformed,  are  alike  in  physical  make-up;  the  same 
number  of  fingers,  with  their  joints,  the  thumb,  muscles,  skin, 
nerves,  veins,  etc.,  with  the  required  twenty-seven  bones  of  the 
frame.  Each  has  strength,  a  proportionate  amount  of  skill, 
and  a  sense  of  touch,  and  yet  we  believe  no  member  of  the  body 

229 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

possesses  so  marked  a  degree  of  individuality  in  character  as 
the  hand.  No  two  pairs  have  ever  been  created  alike,  and  no 
two  people  use  their  hands  in  the  same  way.  A  differentiation  is 
always  to  be  found  in  form  and  appearance.  As  the  character- 
istics of  the  person  are  brought  into  use  by  each  constructive 
soul,  the  hand  is  impressed  with  the  kind  of  individuality  de- 
veloped, and  the  principle  should  hold  here  as  elsewhere,  of 
allowing  and  encouraging  all  the  free  personal  expression  pos- 
sible, avoiding  any  set  and  mechanical  methods,  at  the  same 
time  assuring  a  proper  sense  of  realization  as  to  the  general  and 
particular  capabilities  of  the  human  hand,  and  the  laws  under 
which  it  may  best  operate. 

Both  the  mentality  and  the  emotional  nature  affect  the  hand 
so  strongly  that  even  its  practical  skill  depends  upon  how  these 
two  are  co-ordinated,  for  while  it  is  largely  mental  in  its 
activity,  the  will  determines  its  doing.  To  understand  just 
what  its  motive  may  be,  why  it  should  be  animated  by  the  high- 
est suggestion  at  all  times,  and  how  it  can  be  made  to  show, 
through  cultural  thought,  the  real  refinement  of  which  it  is 
capable,  is  our  present  subject  for  consideration. 

While  the  amount  and  kind  of  individuality  of  the  hand  is 
more  or  less  of  an  unconscious  happening,  the  mentality  ex- 
pressed is  susceptible  of  a  very  high  degree  of  training.  To 
reduce  the  time  between  thought  and  hand  action,  and  to  con- 
stantly attend  to  the  development  of  the  latter,  through  a 
progressive  enlargement  and  refinement  of  the  former,  is  to  give 
it  an  everlasting  motive  of  intelligence,  until  in  the  truly  trained 
hand,  the  thought  and  the  carrying  out  of  the  idea  to  perfec- 
tion, is  almost  simultaneous.  The  manner  of  doing,  and  the 
amount  and  kind  of  strength  used,  may  be  said  to  result  from 
the  quality  of  desire  or  interest  applied. 

If  one  has  no  heart  in  one's  work,  there  is  little  of  real  value 
accomplished,  particularly  in  personal  expression ;  therefore  the 
sense  of  touch  helps  enormously  to  first  create  a  desire  and  then 
strengthen  its  impulse.  The  tips  of  the  fingers  are  as  the  fine 
wire  to  be  played  upon  here,  for  to  the  extent  that  one  develops 
sensitiveness  of  touch,  and  makes  this  a  practice,  the  interest  is 
enlarged  through  appreciation  and  a  reflex  feeling  of  pleasure. 

230 


THE  TRAINING  AND  BEAUTY  OF  THE  HAND 

The  hand  thus  becomes  more  careful,  dainty,  and  beautiful  in 
habit. 

The  maid  in  the  Kitchen  should  not  be  blamed  for  much  of 
the  breakage  she  causes,  for  the  reason  that  her  fingers  are  not 
trained  to  properly  feel  what  she  does.  They  are  carelessly 
thrust  into  all  kinds  of  temperatures,  hot  and  cold  alike,  are 
made  to  "speed  up"  without  the  right  kind  of  high-speed  mo- 
tive, and  readily  become  through  work,  exposure,  and  lack  of 
consideration,  callous  and  irresponsible  when  applied  to  any  fine 
use.  It  matters  not  what  sort  of  work  is  to  be  done,  the  fineness 
of  touch  is  essential  in  its  cultural  value.  Take  for  instance, 
the  handling  of  a  scrubbing  brush,  or  the  wringing  out  of  a 
clumsy  cloth ;  the  ordinary  way  to  do  such  things  is  to  apply  a 
heavy  force,  and  a  spreading  and  coarsening  pressure  and 
movement,  when  they  may  be  done  even  more  rapidly  and  with 
better  result  to  the  person  and  material  if  a  slender  and  intelli- 
gent force  is  applied,  evenly  distributed  throughout  the  entire 
hand  together  with  the  feeling  of  enjoyment  and  reverence  in 
the  contact. 

So  with  every  form  of  employment,  the  manner  of  approach 
and  the  feeling  back  of  it  should  be  more  jealously  guarded 
even  than  the  kind  of  work  to  be  approached.  To  be  ready  to 
put  one's  hand  to  the  plow  is  praiseworthy,  but  to  know  how  to 
handle  the  plow,  to  make  the  most  of  its  every  possibility,  and 
to  be  the  better  for  having  touched  it,  is  an  art  to  cultivate. 

There  is  of  course  a  certain  technique  to  be  learned  in  all 
endeavor,  a  kind  of  flexibility,  an  evenness  of  motion,  the  under- 
standing of  the  right  use  of  the  parts  of  the  hand,  as  well  as 
of  the  whole  as  a  unit,  and  the  particular  needs  of  each  opera- 
tion, but  the  crowning  effort  should  be  centered  in  properly 
developing  the  sense  of  touch  in  relation  to  them  all.  This 
cannot  be  too  exquisite,  or  highly  trained  for  every  practical 
purpose,  provided  it  is  made  to  co-ordinate  with  all  the  charac- 
teristics, and  co-operate  in  the  system  of  training  applied.  It 
is  not  necessary  to  leave  such  an  effect  to  piano  study  only,  for 
the  same  result  may  come  from  the  same  method  of  practice  in 
almost  any  field  of  careful  cultivation.  The  quality,  texture, 
and  shape,  or  contour,  of  the  hand  are  affected  in  proportion  to 

231 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

the  understanding,  the  kind  of  sensation  encouraged,  and  the 
value  of  the  motions  persisted  in.  The  human  hand  is  dis- 
tinguished in  its  movements  from  the  fact  of  its  having  the 
power  of  opposition  in  the  thumb  to  the  other  fingers  alone,  or 
united,  and  as  the  thumb  corresponds  to  the  will,  so  the  manner 
of  using  this  opposition  is  of  moment.  Again  the  first  finger 
is  of  the  mind  particularly,  and  is  called  the  Index  Finger.  The 
second,  or  middle,  is  typical  of  the  individual,  and  helps  the 
mind  and  will.  The  third  is  the  art,  or  creative  finger,  the 
hardest  to  develop  in  practical  ways,  but  conspicuous  in  that 
it  represents  directly  the  sum  total  of  the  man,  his  personality. 
The  little  finger  is  the  psychic,  or  spiritual  lever  that  completes 
the  whole,  and  while  it  is  the  smallest  in  size,  'tis  usually  the 
finest  in  form,  and  when  properly  used  has  the  highest  amount 
of  sensitiveness.  The  inner  palm  is  of  one's  self ;  the  outer,  or 
back,  the  formal  or  social  side.  In  the  wrist  lies  the  secret  of  all 
fine  hand  movement.  This  joint  should  have  full  attention,  for 
it  practically  controls  all  the  others.  Its  freedom,  ease,  grace, 
and  strength  is  of  great  importance,  and  in  every  motion  of  the 
hand  it  should  take  the  lead;  whether  in  pulling,  pushing, 
squeezing,  or  reaching,  or  the  lighter,  gentler  acts  of  the  arts, 
or  the  drawing-room,  the  wrist  should  be  guided  first,  for  only 
with  the  right  power  of  oneness,  will  the  right  coming  together 
of  the  parts  take  place.  This,  then,  is  the  first  thought  of  the 
hand  as  a  whole  in  housework.  To  lift  a  knife,  plate,  rug,  or 
what-not,  the  hand  should  be  led  by  the  wrist  moving  toward 
the  object  first.  It  should  also  be  the  reservoir  of  strength, 
and  the  controller  of  all  the  forces  brought  into  play,  for 
while  the  arm  and  shoulder,  as  well  as  the  whole  person,  enters 
into  each  function  of  the  fingers,  the  wrist  is  the  telling  point, 
never  to  be  forgotten  no  matter  how  direct  the  need  for  action 
may  seem. 

The  best  way  to  use  the  hand  in  housework  is  to  train  it  in 
the  sense  of  touch  so  that  the  mind  and  soul  may  freely  play 
through  it  upon  every  occasion, — mundane  or  festive, — with 
little  choice  as  to  what  it  does,  compared  to  the  decision  of  how 
it  shall  do  it,  the  nature  and  the  quality  of  energy  enlivening  it. 

The  beating  of  a  cake,  the  setting  of  the  table,  the  opening 

232 


THE  TRAINING  AND  BEAUTY  OF  THE  HAND 

of  the  windows,  or  the  carrying  of  garbage,  makes  no  dif- 
ference, provided  the  hand  is  used  beautifully  and  made  to 
give  in  full  measure  to  the  evolution  and  perfection  of  the  life 
within. 

While  it  is  silly  to  believe  applied  care  from  the  outside  can 
take  the  place  of  the  vital  care  of  the  spirit,  it  is  likewise  foolish 
to  think  all  can  be  done  from  the  inside.  Both  should  have 
consideration.  Extreme  care  should  be  taken  to  avoid  touching 
hot  or  cold  articles  as  much  as  possible,  and  to  develop  the 
power  of  withdrawing  the  feeling  if  such  temperature  contact 
is  necessary.  There  is  no  excuse  for  unduly  soiling  and  dis- 
coloring the  hands,  and  although  gloves,  particularly  those 
made  of  rubber,  are  not  to  be  advised  in  general,  when  such 
need  arises,  it  is  better  to  use  them  than  to  deliberately  dis- 
figure the  hand,  although  the  hand  that  is  full  of  life  and  vi- 
tality protects  itself  to  a  great  extent  by  producing  the  right 
kind  of  moisture  at  the  right  instant,  and  smoothing  the  surface 
from  internal  cell  building,  but  there  are  moments  when  noth- 
ing but  a  pumice  stone  fitted  to  the  shape  of  the  finger,  and 
cleaned — repeatedly  while  using — with  a  stiff  nail  brush  and 
soap  can  be  relied  upon  to  do  the  work  in  the  time  required.  A 
simple  lotion  of  half  and  half  glycerine  and  witch  hazel  may  be 
used  to  advantage  if  the  hands  chap,  or  honey  and  sweet  oil,  or 
lemon  juice  perhaps  if  the  hand  needs  whitening. 

On  the  whole  the  hand  should  be  treated  with  more  care  and 
consideration  than  the  face,  for  it  is  in  the  last  analysis  the 
most  spiritual  member  we  have,  in  that  it  not  only  moulds  the 
way  for  the  expression  of  the  inner  nature,  but  is  also  the 
medium  of  the  most  important  of  the  five  senses,  in  the  making 
of  environment  and  the  proper  living  therein,  the  sense  of  touch. 
The  cultivated  hand  becomes  one  of  the  greatest  of  human 
assets,  not  the  white,  inane,  lifeless  type,  but  the  truly  expressive 
member.  No  subject  is  more  fertile  in  possibilities  for  educa- 
tion, in  variety  of  expression  and  in  being  always  a  form  of 
practice  available,  than  the  subject  of  housework.  For  the 
thing  that  has  been  condemned  as  a  hand  destroyer,  when 
properly  studied,  understood,  and  enjoyed,  is  found  in  reality 
to  prove  a  hand  beautifier,  and  the  woman's  hand  that  is  fair 

233 


PRINCIPLES   OF   DOMESTIC   ENGINEERING 

enough  to  warrant  the  kind  of  gallantry  that  has  ever  been  its 
due,  must  adequately  meet  the  requirements  of  modern  feminine 
standards  and  become,  through  assembling  all  the  virtues  within 
its  reach,  the  veritable  symbol  of  righteousness  in  nature  and  in 
truth,  ready  and  able  to  both  rock  the  cradle  and  rule  the  world. 


234 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  FIVE  SENSES 

"How  sweetly   sounds  the   voice   of  a  good  woman. 
It  is  so  seldom  heard,  that  when  it  speaks 
It  ravishes  all  senses" 

It  is  unfortunate  that  the  word  sensual  is  limited  in  its  usual 
meaning  to  a  voluptuous  use  of  the  senses,  for  we  would  have 
each  sense  and  all  the  senses,  so  encouraged  as  to  be  sensuous 
in  character,  yet  spiritual  in  nature.  That  is,  a  high  degree 
of  pleasure  should  accompany  the  exercise  of  each  sense,  an  en- 
joyment for  enjoyment's  sake,  together  with  a  desire  to  absorb 
all  they  have  to  give,  in  order  to  use  the  result  for  still  higher 
personal  development,  for  as  no  one  of  the  senses  has  any  power 
to  delight  us  except  for  the  inner  consciousness  of  that  sense, 
so  all  may  be  divinely  inspired,  with  an  innate  perception  and 
contribute  through  use,  to  the  bloom  and  perfection  of  the  soul's 
highest  atmosphere,  and  as  far  as  we  know,  there  is  no  word 
that  expresses  just  this  thought  of  sense-culture.  For  taken 
together  they  form  as  it  were  the  very  perfume  of  the  inner  life. 
Full  of  sense,  or  sensible,  has  a  very  practical  sound,  that  sug- 
gests good  judgment,  clear  reasoning,  etc.,  but  little  that  might 
be  called  exquisite,  magnetic  or  psychic.  Sensation,  on  the 
other  hand,  may  but  convey  a  thought  of  weakness,  or  of  partial 
development,  but  the  sensorium  of  the  man,  or  the  seat  of  per- 
ception, where  all  seven  senses — if  we  have  seven — co-ordinate 
and  co-operate  into  a  feeling  of  the  man  himself ;  the  conscious- 
ness of  his  own  being,  full  of  life,  within  the  temple  of  his  own 
building,  is,  so  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  find,  still  unexpressed 
in  a  single  word  from  the  purely  sense  standpoint.  Yet  we  all 
know  this  feeling.  It  is  a  part  of  the  fulfillment  of  one's  nature. 
It  belongs  to  the  complete  realization  of  the  soul  itself,  and  is 
essential  to  its  worth  and  beauty. 

If  therefore  the  senses  play  this  important  role  in  the  growth 

235 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

and  enrichment  of  the  ego,  as  there  seems  no  reason  to  doubt, 
surely  they  are  worthy  special  and  every-day  attention,  that 
the  free,  spontaneous  response  from  a  well-ordered  and  intelli- 
gently ordained  environment  may  result,  for  it  is  the  limitation 
put  upon  their  use,  rather  than  the  conditions  made  for  their 
enjoyment,  that  is  the  danger  point.  To  cater  only  to  physical 
taste  or  a  pleasure  in  eating  beyond  one's  normal  need,  instead 
of  developing  a  higher  and  finer  sense  of  taste  that  would  give 
satisfaction  in  the  psychic  field,  is  the  mistake.  For  the  nerves 
and  humors  of  the  body  require  attention  as  well  as  the  stomach, 
and  when  properly  fed  give  delight  to  this  sense  greater  than 
any  full  stomach  can  give,  and  in  fact  become  master  of  this 
unruly  organ,  directing  it  to  far  greater  comfort  and  satisfac- 
tion in  its  work. 

The  same  is  true  of  smell,  if  it  be  allowed  to  degenerate  into 
a  mere  carping  critic ;  through  artificial  odors  and  atmospheres 
it  becomes  a  destroyer,  rather  than  a  preserver,  of  the  body,  for 
while  its  function,  as  we  know,  is  of  course  to  give  pleasure, 
that  is  but  a  by-product  of  its  real  purpose  of  converting  the 
surrounding  perfumes  into  an  inner  charm  that  calls  forth 
wonder-working  in  the  entire  circulation.  The  vital  vapors 
and  ethers  that  give  joy  to  the  nose  of  the  wise  one,  are  the 
protectors  and  accumulators  of  the  best  substance  of  life. 

The  value  of  touch  is  only  comparable  with  consciousness  it- 
self, for  it  affects  the  entire  inner  and  outer  feeling  of  the  body, 
making  it  comfortable,  rested,  and  happy,  or  miserable,  weary 
and  wretched.  The  entire  spirit  of  the  man  responds  inspir- 
ingly  to  a  perfect  bed,  or  an  invigorating  bath,  and  is  depressed 
and  troubled  or  annoyed  when  in  contact  with  irritating  sub- 
stances, and  a  state  of  feeling  is  often  anticipated  from  what 
one  knows  will  be  the  effect  of  touch,  and  so,  endlessly  are  we 
acquainted  with  its  marvelous  workings,  the  value  of  which  are 
educational  in  the  highest  degree.  As  a  guide  in  the  dark  of 
the  many  worlds  about  us,  mental,  spiritual,  or  physical,  it  is 
the  sense  that  leads  toward  the  light,  in  temperature,  and  in 
texture,  in  contour  and  in  atmosphere. 

As  to  the  eyes,  they  speak  for  themselves,  for  the  sense  of 
sight  is  the  first  and  perhaps  the  easiest  to  cultivate,  but  the 

236 


THE    FIVE    SENSES 

last  to  be  satisfied.  It  seems  to  have  the  power  both  to  push 
and  pull  the  intelligence  and  understanding  into  new  and  in- 
teresting fields,  and  when  properly  focussed,  forever  furnishes 
the  imagination  and  all  other  faculties  with  new  food  for 
activity.  Color  also  is  subject  to  this  sense  alone,  and  what  un- 
speakable joy  it  brings!  The  wonder  of  a  sunset,  the  gorgeous 
tones  of  a  flame,  and  the  beautiful  shades  of  the  night  enter  pro- 
foundly into  the  sensuous  soul  and  fill  it  anew  with  life-giving 
strength. 

Again  one  is  lulled  to  harmonious  rest  with  sound  that  is 
just  to  one's  liking.  Though  music  is  an  established  art  ap- 
preciated and  enjoyed  by  most  people,  producing  more  of  an 
actual  sensation  in  the  body  than  is  generally  thought  possible, 
the  sense  of  hearing  is  perhaps  the  most  abused  of  the  senses.  It 
must  endure  the  sounds  that  come  within  its  reach,  and  the  noises 
that  madden  the  nerves  and  shock  the  whole  person,  and  al- 
though one  may  reason  one's  self  into  indifference  as  to  the 
greater  part,  and  even  a  kind  of  pleasant  appreciation  of  what 
seems  to  be  a  necessary  noise,  the  irritating  sounds  of  the  civil- 
ized world,  are  little  less  than  barbaric,  for  instead  of  bringing 
the  human  being  into  a  unit  of  harmony,  ever  ready  to  vibrate 
to  his  own  natural  key  in  the  universe,  they  scatter  his  forces, 
tension  his  life,  and  put  him  generally  out  of  tune  with  himself 
and  his  entire  surroundings. 

Thus  have  we  touched  upon  the  possibilities  of  the  five  senses 
in  order  to  suggest  their  best  usage  in  the  home,  the  environ- 
ment of  which  should  be  a  studied  school  of  perpetual  and  in- 
spirational suggestion,  because  no  one  can  tell  how  important 
becomes  the  material,  unconsciously  but  continuously  being  in- 
cluded in  one's  training,  and  having  a  permanent  and  repro- 
ductive effect  upon  one's  growing  character. 

Special  subjects  and  objects  should  be  encouraged  for  the 
right  exercise  of  each  separate  sense,  and  all  the  work  of  the 
house  so  ordained  as  to  form  a  medium  for  the  co-ordination 
and  co-operation  of  all  the  senses  in  play  upon  each  undertak- 
ing, making  one  ever  alive  to  the  possibilities  of  a  personally 
cultural  attitude  by  the  opening  of  every  avenue  of  one's  being 
ready  for  an  impressive  intake  and  an  expressive  output. 

237 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

Again  the  universal  consciousness  of  feeling  that  human 
nature  has  more  than  the  five  senses,  is  to  be  considered  here,  and 
the  classic  phrase  of  being — "scared  out  of  his  seven  senses," — 
makes  it  appropriate  to  inquire  into  the  character  of  the  other 
two.  While  the  word  sense  is  used  in  a  variety  of  connections, 
as  sense  of  time  and  place,  sense  of  reason,  of  beauty,  of  imagina- 
tion, the  creative  sense,  etc.,  perhaps  the  latter,  or  the  sex  sense, 
might  be  called  the  sixth.  And  the  sense  of  being,  that  con- 
sciousness of  a  completed  whole,  expressed  in  the  sense  of  per- 
ception, or  the  intuitive  sense,  the  seventh. 

Surely  the  home  is  the  haven  of  these,  in  the  starting  and 
establishing  of  their  normal  working,  and  the  suggestion  for 
their  highest  place  and  functioning. 

The  sex  sense  may  be  interpreted  as  the  power  of  manifesting 
self  according  to  the  ability  to  produce  after  one's  kind,  and 
has  a  world  of  use  as  large  as  life  itself.  The  male  affecting 
the  female  into  psychic  expression,  the  female  feeding  the  male 
for  spiritual  use,  so  that  whether  it  be  exercised  in  the  creating 
of  a  poem,  a  home,  or  a  soul,  it  becomes  the  vortex  of  the 
activity  of  a  double  trinity  of  sensation  and  is  the  guiding  star 
in  the  upward  and  onward  evolution  of  the  race. 

Although  the  science  of  eugenics  deserves  all  the  honor  that  is 
its  due,  the  study  and  practice  of  a  human  and  a  sublime  form 
of  sexuality  with  abundant  education  along  the  widest  possible 
interpretation  of  its  functional  usefulness,  would  do  much  to 
solve  the  problem  of  mating,  by  producing  a  higher  quality  of 
material  with  which  to  mate. 

Intuitively  we  are  but  the  result  of  all  these  animated  parts, 
and  whether  at  work  or  at  play,  whether  in  the  home  or  out  of 
the  home,  the  sensations  experienced  are  the  developing 
processes  that  make  it  possible  to  be  sure  of  one's  self  and  one's 
attachments.  To  know  things  from  the  inside  out,  to  enter  into 
and  to  have  control  over  the  situation  through  actual  knowl- 
edge acquired  as  to  meanings  and  to  evolve  into  a  stronger  and 
happier  state  or  character  by  appreciating  the  senses  as  the 
real  basis  of  spirituality, — for  in  the  harmonious  operation  of 
the  occult  seven,  and  their  spiritous  practice  through  responsive 
emotional  moods, — lies  the  secret  of  human  charm,  the  beauty 

238 


THE    FIVE    SENSES 

of  human  form,  the  delight  in  human  presence,  and  the  glory 
and  sweetness  of  God's  highest  human  gift,  the  gift  of  a  rich, 
beautiful  and  expressive  voice  in  speech. 

"Oh!  how  wonderful  is  the  human  voice! 
It  is  indeed  the  organ  of  the  soul !" 


239 


CHAPTER    XV 

THE    NEED    OF    BEAUTY    IN    EVERY-DAY    LIFE 

"Beauty  is  truth,  truth  beauty, — that  is  all  ye  know  on  earth,  and 
all  ye  need  to  know" 

"If  by  love  and  nobleness  we  take  up  into  ourselves  the  beauty* 
we  admire,  we  shall  spend  it  again  on  all  around  us" 

While  love  of  beauty  is  one  of  the  great  fundamental  in- 
stincts in  nature,  love  of  truth  may  be  said  to  be  more  or  less 
acquired,  in  that  beauty  is  an  appreciation,  while  truth  is  a  per- 
ception. To  feel  the  charm  of  a  thing,  does  not  always  insure 
knowledge,  nor  does  the  understanding  guarantee  the  will  to 
love.  Still  to  truly  exist  with  perfect  enjoyment,  one  must 
insure  one's  self  in  an  appreciative  perception.  Conform  sin- 
cerely to  one's  being ;  to  what  is  real  in  the  facts  of  life,  and  to 
the  rules  of  its  acts  in  standard  practice  and  ideals.  In  the 
same  process  one  must  appreciate  the  harmonious  conditions  of 
such  diverse  elements  in  unity.  In  other  words,  the  aesthetic 
sense  is  not  satisfied  until  it  is  delighted  in  sensation  and  en- 
lightened in  perception,  for  to  be  true  in  all  respects  is  to  be 
beautiful.  The  quality  of  beauty  presupposes  the  element  of 
truth.  This  being  so,  is  it  not  important  that  such  an  emotion 
be  given  every  chance  for  expression?  For  instinct  moves  into 
knowledge,  knowledge  into  perception  and  perception  into  the 
higher  and  intuitive  creation  of  the  thing  itself. 

Beauty  not  only  ravishes  the  senses  and  gives  joy  to  the 
mind,  but  it  evolves  to  best  advantage  the  very  innermost  life, 
for  when  a  thing  is  seen  in  the  true  sense  of  beauty,  it  relates 
itself  to  all  that  has  gone  before,  and  to  a  vision  of  what  is  to 
come.  Even  tragedy  and  torture,  sorrow  and  accident,  lose 
their  horror  when  characterized  in  the  setting  of  the  whole  of 
life's  drama,  for  then  their  meaning  is  clearly  creative,  and 
death  itself  but  the  assurance  of  life. 

If  the  value  of  beauty  applies  in  a  general  way,  it  is  found 

240 


THE    NEED   OF   BEAUTY   IN    EVERY-DAY   LIFE 

to  be  even  more  truly  productive  in  particular  forms  and  shapes, 
as  it  is  the  element  of  all  others  that  makes  careful  ensemble,  or 
the  bringing  together  of  parts  into  a  satisfying  and  centered 
oneness. 

The  school  that  is  accenting  beauty  is  founding  itself  in  the 
deepest  and  strongest  of  motives.  The  mere  external  surround- 
ing is  perhaps  but  the  shell.  Although  sooner  or  later  it  lends 
itself  to  the  great  business  of  character-making,  and  the  child 
that  is  made  to  see  and  to  feel  the  pleasure  of  an  attractive 
environment — or  better  still  is  made  to  build  his  own — is  forti- 
fied against  the  dangers  of  any  ugly  side  in  existence,  both  in 
thought  and  in  act.  For  after  all,  everything  that  is  not  right 
is  hideous,  discordant  and  isolated. 

All  intelligent  effort,  therefore,  should  be  focussed  upon 
bringing  out  a  proper  sense  of  proportion  and  harmony,  and 
attaching  it  to  every  interest  in  life,  if  we  would  assure  moder- 
ation and  temperance  in  the  doings  of  the  people. 

Again,  nothing  can  reach  its  maximum  usefulness  until  it 
includes  the  element  of  beauty,  nor  is  a  thing  beautiful  that  has 
no  use,  whether  it  be  a  woman,  a  vase,  an  idea,  or  a  kitchen 
utensil. 

The  standard  of  beauty  suggested  in  the  Experiment  Station, 
was  such  as  to  bring  together  the  parts  of  each  article  into  a 
charming  and  efficient  unit  of  use  and  beauty,  embodying  form, 
color,  proportion  and  composition.  Each  room  was,  as  far 
as  possible  an  expression  of  its  best  meaning  through  the  har- 
monious grouping  of  standard  parts  and  furnishings,  and  the 
spirit  of  the  house  bespoke  itself  in  a  tone  of  the  higher  per- 
sonal life.  Personal  in  the  sense  of  being  the  result,  or  atmos- 
phere, of  an  ever-developing  personality.  For  the  home  is  in 
truth  the  center  of  the  Nation's  aesthetic  progress.  Only  that 
which  is  permanent  emanates  from  here,  therefore  the  totem 
of  each  house  should  have  a  beauty  and  dignity  all  its  own. 

Thus  will  this  earth  life  put  on  a  heavenly  garment  and 
extend  its  joy  of  being  into  the  uttermost  parts. 

Where  the  true  body  will  prove  itself  a  form  incorruptible, 
and  all  that  is  called  work  shall  be  given  a  new  conception. 
Pleasure  and  profit  will  be  cultivated  in  ever  higher  and  higher 

241 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC   ENGINEERING 

forms  through  the  spirit  and  love  of  beauty  universally  in- 
corporated as  a  unifying  force  in  individual  consciousness,  and 
a  practical  essential  in  all  home  life. 

"One  of  the  sure  tests  of  a  real  home  is  that  the  very  thought 
of  it  relaxes  our  nerves,  mind,  muscles,  and  gently  and  firmly 
restores  to  one  peace,  and  faith  in  the  goodness  and  beauty  of 
God's  great  plan." 


242 


PART  III 
THE  PROGRESSIVE  HOME 


An  altar  place  in  which  my  "heart  can  fire 
Its  social  incense  to  familiar  Gods; — 
A  refuge  from  the  world's  chastising  rods, 

To  which  the  world-worn  spirit  can  retire. 

A  nest  built  in  the  house-tree  of  the  earth, 
From  which  the  focal  hearth  can  beam  its  rays 
To  all  the  homeless  in  the  cheerless  days, 

And  reach  in  influence  through  the  world's  wide  girth. 

— Anspacher. 


CHAPTER    I 

THE    HOME    AND    POLITICS 

"Who,  born  for  the  universe,  narrowed  his  mind 
And  to  party  gave  up  what  was  meant  for  mankind" 

The  fact  that  politics  has  a  permanent  and  vital  place  in 
home-making  cannot  be  questioned,  if  it  is  realized  that  govern- 
ment itself  is  but  the  management  of  the  conditions  and  materials 
for  the  larger  or  collective  home,  and  that  the  very  word  politics 
— derived  from  the  Greek,  polis,  city — suggests  a  congregation 
of  homes. 

Unhappily,  however,  the  subject  is  interpreted  in  two  diver- 
gent ways.  One,  as  those  measures  wisely  planned  and  pur- 
sued in  the  interest  of  public  good.  The  other,  the  devising 
of  any  means,  right  or  wrong,  adapted  to  an  end — good  or  evil. 
If  the  home,  therefore,  is  to  endure  in  the  midst  of  such  con- 
fusion of  political  purpose,  it  needs  must  step  to  the  front  and 
replace  itself  with  its  principal  concerns  as  the  first,  last  and 
only  real  object  of  any  government.  Politics  would  thus  be- 
come in  popular  practice  as  well  as  in  words  the  way  of  adminis- 
tering the  government  for  the  general  welfare.  It  would,  in- 
stead of  lending  itself  to  intrigue  designed  for  selfish  ends,  as  is 
too  often  the  case,  in  reality  be  a  method  of  arriving  at  what 
is  best  for  the  prosperity  of  all  the  people,  all  the  time. 
Political  parties,  as  we  know  them,  are  merely  groups  of  differ- 
ing opinion,  and  although  they  foster  prejudice  and  break  up 
the  thought  of  the  country  into  warring  and  bitter  factions,  it 
is  a  psychological  truth  that  there  are  two  fundamental  atti- 
tudes of  human  nature  to  be  found  here,  as  elsewhere.  These 
might  be  called  the  positive  and  negative.  The  one,  born  of 
courage  to  risk  and  desire  to  move  on ;  a  growing,  progressive, 
unsatisfied  spirit,  ready  to  give  of  itself  if  it  can  but  push  for- 
ward. The  other,  of  cautious  and  careful  demeanor,  fearing 
to  fail  and  preferring  the  present ;  a  doubtful,  a  thankful,  con- 

247 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

servative  make-up.  Both,  in  all  their  varieties,  are  essential  to 
a  healthy  normal  system,  and  while  every  man  is  more  or  less 
a  mixture  of  the  two,  a  party  founded  in  principles  peculiar 
to  each  would  ultimately  satisfy  all  types,  instead  of  the  pres- 
ent custom  of  forming  temporary  factions  about  a  single  issue, 
or  a  mere  matter  of  method,  which  eventually  must  lead  to  par- 
tial thought  and  feeling  and  give  occasion  for  political  and 
national  catastrophe. 

Food,  Shelter  and  Clothing  are  the  three  objects  of  interest 
in  the  State  as  they  are  in  the  Home.  Other  things  are  of 
moment  that  these  may  be  arrived  at,  most  cheerfully  and  con- 
veniently, and  in  the  last  analysis  the  State  is  but  the  larger 
and  more  complex  form  of  Home.  Hence  what  affects  the  one, 
has  a  direct  influence  upon  the  other,  and  the  management  of 
one  depends  upon  the  standard  of  the  other. 

There  was  a  time  when  the  public  had  little  to  say  as  to  the 
affairs  of  the  household.  The  protection  of  property  from 
assault,  and  the  form  of  taxing  in  exchange  for  such  service, 
were  the  principal  functions,  but  now  there  is  scarcely  a  subject 
that  is  wholly  the  part  of  the  private  Home,  or  that  is  not 
affected  and  moulded  by  politics  and  the  government.  From 
the  building  of  the  house,  with  conformity  to  municipal  regu- 
lations to  its  inspection  and  the  standard  of  material  used,  even 
to  the  last  fixture  and  article  of  furniture  placed,  or  the  supplies 
purchased;  from  the  gas,  electricity  and  water,  to  the  box  of 
matches,  and  the  bottle  of  milk,  we  have  but  to  look  about  and 
discover  the  fact  that  politics  is  interwoven  with,  and  affecting 
these  things  as  never  before.  In  truth,  home-making  can  no 
longer  be  said  to  be  a  private  undertaking.  It  is  a  public 
function,  regulated  and  formulated  by  local  and  State 
authorities. 

The  School  with  its  effect  upon  child-life  is  almost  exclusively 
the  work  of  political  appointment.  The  Public  Library  again 
is  the  result  of  the  State.  And  the  Market,  with  its  life-giving 
or  death-carrying  contents,  is  subject  to  law  and  official  rulings. 
Our  going  and  coming,  the  acts  of  one's  neighbors,  the  railroads, 
the  trolleys,  the  roads,  are  in  the  last  analysis  ordained  and 
controlled  by  political  factors,  and  designed  to  develop  a  locality 

248 


THE   i  OME    AND    POLITICS 

in  proportion  to  the  intelligence  of  the  officials  and  the  kind  of 
co-operation  established.  The  larger  and  better  housekeeping 
means  efficient  government,  and  the  best  possible  talent  for  pub- 
lic office.  In  other  words,  the  scientific  selection  of  our  political 
workmen,  as  well  as  proper  training  for  their  particular  duties. 

While  there  are  many  sides  of  the  government  that  will  for- 
ever require  the  masculine  attitude,  there  are  again  other  phases 
that  can  never  reach  any  high  practical  standard  except  through 
feminine  handling  and  it  is  the  woman  who  should  make  them 
her  responsibility. 

Take,  for  example,  the  food  for  the  world.  While  men  can 
grow  it  and  store  it,  women  can  best  prepare  and  distribute  it, 
for  it  is  the  woman  who  feeds  the  race,  intellectually  and  psychic- 
ally, as  well  as  physically,  and  she  should  have  guard  over  the 
market  as  well  as  the  single  table  of  her  own  home,  for  without 
the  larger  attention,  the  private  effort  is  lost.  Little  avails  in  the 
most  careful  home-preparation  even  with  all  the  virtues  attached, 
if  the  substance  has  entered  the  door  through  any  road  of 
dietetic  pollution.  For  thus  her  work  is  lost  and  the  home  much 
endangered.  Again,  she  is  the  nurse,  the  protector  and  shielder 
of  life,  and  succeeds  best  where  the  mothering,  or  nurturing 
function  is  required,  from  the  creation  of  the  child,  to  the  organ- 
izing and  bringing  into  being  of  an  ideal,  a  poem  or  a  world 
standard ;  her  patience,  her  faith,  and  her  sympathy  are  elements 
hard  to  resist,  for  they  burrow  deep  into  the  heart  of  things, 
and  thereby  know  the  contents  of  all  at  first  hand.  So  that 
while  it  is  the  function  of  man  to  provide  and  build,  it  is  the 
duty  of  woman  to  guard  and  use.  Indeed  it  is  man's  pleasure 
to  capture  and  conquer  and  bring  back  the  spoils  to  her,  who 
will  guarantee  to  him  the  best  results.  And  for  this  world-fight 
he  designs  and  produces  the  tools  and  weapons,  the  machines 
and  plans,  while  she  brings  forth  the  occasions  and  the  subjects 
for  their  use,  and  becomes  skilled  and  elevated  in  their  presence. 
She  it  is  who  raises  the  standard,  while  he  makes  the  standard 
work. 

If  there  ever  was  a  time  when  the  standard  of  politics  needed 
raising,  it  is  here  and  now.  In  every  locality  the  demand  is  for 
higher  and  more  efficient  service  in  public  affairs,  in  order  that 

249 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC  \  ENGINEERING 

daily  living  may  be  healthier,  happier,  and  more  profitable,  and 
while  of  course  it  is  after  all  the  business  and  result  of  the  in- 
dividual and  his  private  life — for  one  reaps  what  he  sows — 
yet  on  the  other  hand,  the  individual  is  almost  helpless  in  the 
Pace  of  the  standards  of  society  and  the  collective  thought.  The 
only  thing  to  do  then  is  to  unite  and  establish  a  form  of  new 
ieffort.  The  government  is  represented  by  only  half  the  ele- 
ments of  human  nature,  while  public  welfare  demands  the  con- 
sideration of  all.  The  State  needs  the  woman.  It  needs  her 
if  anything,  more  than  she  needs  the  vote.  Men,  even  with  the 
best  intentions,  strive  hardest  for  those  things  that  accumulate 
power  and  wealth,  and  neglect  often  entirely,  the  real  issues  of 
life.  The  child,  its  food  and  its  life,  are  on  the  other  hand, 
never  forgotten  for  a  moment  by  the  woman  of  any  feminine 
integrity,  thus  leading  her  back  forever  to  the  home  complete, 
the  thing  for  which  government  is  designed  and  from  which 
alas!  it  wanders  far  afield.  The  remedy  is  for  both  men  and 
women  to  become  active  politicians  of  the  right  order,  not  the 
intriguing  partisan,  self-seeking  sort,  but  the  earnest  and  in- 
terested workers  for  peace,  justice,  and  righteousness,  the  cour- 
ageous champions  of  health  and  the  doers  of  deeds  that  will 
count  in  child  profit.  Thus  will  the  home  never  be  forgotten 
in  the  spirit  of  the  chase,  but  ever  and  anon  move  ahead  in 
strength  and  progressive  worth,  enlarging  its  place  in  politics 
and  public  affairs  by  the  constant  raising  of  its  standard,  in  the 
production  of  better  citizens  and  the  encouragement  of  a  more 
perfect  form  of  government.  Then  will  the  home  and  politics 
be  rightfully  joined  together.  The  welfare  of  each,  the  con- 
cern of  the  other.  Better  homes  will  give  us  better  government, 
and  better  politics  better  homes. 


250 


CHAPTER    II 

THE    HOME    AND    SOCIETY 

"The  best  society  and  conversation  is  that  in  which  the  heart  has 
a  greater  share  than  the  head" 

From  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  earth  one  would  see  the  houses 
gathered  together  in  groups  more  or  less  closely  associated, 
according  to  the  nature  and  locality  of  the  settlement.  The 
reason  for  this  might  appear  at  first  to  be  a  nearby  church,  a 
school,  a  railway  station,  or  perchance  a  trolley — but  these 
things  come  because  of  people,  not  before  them.  The  real 
cause  of  a  town's  beginning  has  to  do  with  air  and  site,  the  kind 
of  soil,  and  always  with  the  water ;  people  follow  these  essentials, 
and  they  are  of  necessity  the  basis  for  the  physical  relation  of 
homes,  but  another  and  stronger  cause  is  found  in  the  fact  that 
the  people  within  the  houses,  therefore  the  houses  themselves, 
have  a  relationship  that  is  purely  social,  drawing  them  together 
in  a  friendly  and  delightful  way,  as  the  spring  of  water  draweth 
the  traveller  for  refreshment. 

And  this  is  the  side  of  the  home  we  would  discuss  here,  for 
it  is  the  people,  after  all,  that  make  a  city.  Not  the  buildings 
or  the  spires,  high  land,  or  lighted  fires — but  the  hopes  and 
ambitions,  the  joys  and  the  loves,  the  industry  and  the  needs 
of  the  human  spirit,  humanly  related  to  its  kind.  These  are 
the  things  that  count  in  the  drawing  of  people  together,  and 
the  kind  of  kinship  all  homes  have  in  common, — ready  to  re- 
spond and  be  moulded  as  sympathy  suggests. 

In  the  early  stages  of  society  we  find  the  homes  with  the 
largest  acreages,  the  finest  prominences,  the  greatest  accumula- 
tion of  riches,  or  the  lordly  spirit  of  ownership,  counting  as  the 
highest  standard  of  achievement. 

This  developed  a  kind  of  domestic  competition,  that  induced 
social  strife  and  enmity  and  inevitably  produced  an  atmosphere 
in  which  everybody,  through  trying  to  gain  the  most  for  himself, 

251 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC   ENGINEERING 

was  unconsciously  contributing  a  selfish  and  discordant  part, 
that  in  the  end  reacted  unfavorably  upon  all  alike,  making  even 
the  physical  relationship  less  profitable  than  the  natural  environ- 
ment seemed  to  warrant ;  various  nuisances  crept  in,  were 
allowed,  and  at  times,  even  fostered,  as  useful  obstacles  in  the 
progress  of  one's  fellows,  and  things  were  done  in  the  name  of 
God  and  man  that  would  have  brought  speedy  ruin  to  the  group, 
had  it  not  been  for  the  saving  grace  of  that  divinely  human 
relationship  of  family  and  home.  For  imperfect  and  unlovely 
as  this  expression  may  appear,  it  is  the  factor  in  society  that 
ultimately  must  connect  the  whole  fabric  into  a  harmonious 
and  sympathetic  oneness.  The  extension  of  the  feeling  of  kin- 
ship and  the  realization  of  a  closer  civic  and  economic  brother- 
hood, as  well  as  a  religious  and  social  one,  cannot  but  prove  the 
actual  interdependence  of  the  community  group. 

In  fact,  so  interwoven  are  the  conditions  that  affect  every 
home,  that  the  character  of  one  permeates,  often  unintentionally, 
the  very  core  and  body  of  another,  making  or  marring  its 
environment,  and  affecting  the  vital  nature  of  the  substance 
from  which  it  is  formed.  The  spirit  of  one  home  comes  in 
touch  with  the  spirit  of  a  neighboring  home,  and  lo !  something 
happens,  a  new  life  is  born,  and  the  world  is  that  much  better 
or  worse  for  the  happening;  thus  a  responsibility  and  a  satis- 
faction is  involved  in  all  community  contact,  whether  definitely 
determined  or  not,  that  should  inspire  a  high  order  of  activity 
in  every  undertaking, — the  first,  in  that  each  act  does  so  end- 
lessly affect  the  whole,  and  the  second,  in  the  power  of  the 
individual  to  so  influence  others — for  after  all,  power  is  a  fas- 
cinating possession  when  rightly  used  and  we  find  a  home  moves 
through  the  same  stages  of  progress  in  this,  as  does  the  child,' 
who  experiments ;  first,  using  the  space  between  itself  and  what 
it  would  acquire ;  second,  trying  to  compass  that  distance  by  a 
directed  movement  towards  the  object;  third,  enjoying  the  suc- 
cess of  arriving  at  what  is  desired,  and  fourth,  the  feeling  of 
satisfaction  in  appropriating  the  thing  unto  itself,  for  its  own 
pleasure.  This  makes  of  the  social  home  a  somewhat  selfish 
center,  but  it  may  as  well  be  confessed  that  selfishness  at  this 
stage  of  development  is  a  universal  showing  of  both  the  in- 

252 


THE    HOME    AND    SOCIETY 

dividual  and  the  family,  as  well  as  the  larger  group,  and  needs 
but  to  be  enlightened  into  altruism. 

From  a  "society"  standpoint  the  average  home  would  enter- 
tain only  those  persons  and  connections  who  contribute  to  it  a 
form  of  pleasure  or  profit.  A  small  class  are,  however,  awake 
to  the  fact  of  a  higher  degree  of  enjoyment  to  be  found  in  the 
giving  of  one's  self  to  those  who  need  most  a  share  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  an  order  of  home  above  this  type,  and  just  a  few  there 
are  who  delight  in  offering  their  best  to  the  end  that  the  general 
and  even  unknown  public,  may  profit  thereby — and  yet  the 
process  is  the  same  as  with  the  lower  and  more  selfish  form  of 
home,  merely  the  degree  of  expression  is  different,  and  the 
plane  of  action  higher,  because  more  enlightened.  Each  goes 
through  the  same  stages  of  desiring,  of  moving  toward,  of 
pleasure  in  the  acquiring,  and  of  satisfaction  in  the  extension 
of  self.  This  gives  all  homes  the  same  fundamental  character- 
istics and  problems,  for  all  are  touched  alike  by  the  same  environ- 
ment, even  though  differing  in  form  and  condition.  It  is  what 
one  does  with  a  situation  that  is  of  importance,  not  so  much 
how  one  is  surrounded  or  affected  by  it. 

The  social  home,  like  the  individual,  must  develop  itself  from 
within,  as  well  as  allow  itself  to  be  drawn  into  sympathetic 
action  by  the  play  of  society.  Each  day  should  find  it  a  bit 
ahead  in  the  game  of  friendly  relationship,  and  this,  of  course, 
is  not  easy,  except  there  be  a  strong  spirit  of  kinship  and 
family  co-operation,  as  well  as  an  intelligent  and  united  social 
effort,  for  the  comfort  and  happiness  of  all. 

The  real  use  of  society  is  the  chance  it  affords  for  the  mul- 
tiplication of  human  emotions  and  their  results.  If  a  man  is 
ambitious,  he  becomes  more  so  when  in  contact  with  the  ambition 
of  other  men,  or  if  inclined  to  be  intellectual,  his  powers  become 
quickened  in  thoughtful  debate  or  discussion  with  those  of  his 
kind ;  pleasures  are  intensified  by  summing  up  the  delights  from 
all  sides,  and  activity  becomes  more  effective  when  varied  in 
interest  and  contributed  to  by  a  number  of  motives.  Society 
in  this  sense  becomes  one  of  the  most  potent  factors  in  the 
development  of  a  life,  be  it  single  or  collective,  and  should  be 
taken  seriously,  to  the  extent  of  keeping  guard  over  its  creative 

253 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

and  constructive  functions.  It  should  be  the  interest  of  all 
to  see  to  its  spiritual  caliber  as  well  as  its  outward  form,  for  its 
influence  in  good  and  evil  is  tremendous,  growing  from  day  to 
day,  as  each  contribution  may  suggest ;  hence  how  important  a 
role  the  community  has  to  play  through  the  ever-developing 
social  home,  and  its  active  society  members. 

For  the  ever-developing  home  is  the  progressive  home,  the 
growing  home  that  constitutes  the  finest  social  unit, — conscious 
not  alone  of  its  own  existence,  but  of  a  self-direction  in  the 
unfolding  of  a  life  that  is  constantly  increasing  in  power,  appre- 
ciation, and  breadth,  operating  on  a  plane  that  is  moving  ever 
and  ever  onward,  creating  from  day  to  day,  newer  and  happier 
standards;  not  by  drifting  along  in  a  social  order  that  says 
guard  well  your  own  class ;  keep  within  a  select  circle ;  return 
your  social  obligations  by  formally  entertaining  those  who  have 
entertained  you ;  above  all  make  an  effort  to  climb  into  the  set 
that  will  best  gratify  your  sense  of  worldly  possession;  but 
rather,  by  welcoming  each  experience  and  every  individual  into  a 
place  of  understanding  in  the  building  of  a  social  organism.  This 
requires  a  consciousness  of  the  law  upon  which  all  true  society 
rests,  the  highest  type  of  which  is  the  organic  and  creative 
consciousness,  the  law  being  that  every  part  of  the  universe  is 
so  intimately  related,  no  portion  can  properly  exist  by  itself. 
Discovery,  however,  puts  things  in  new  relationship,  and  this 
constant  change, — we  call  progress, — is  moving  toward  more  and 
more  harmonious  and  effective  relation,  for  right  relationship 
is  the  secret  of  all  human  power  as  well  as  mechanical.  An 
engine  that  is  properly  related  in  all  of  its  parts  is  a  higher 
medium  of  force  than  a  hunk  of  iron  or  steel,  just  as  a  man 
who  has  come  into  contact  and  sympathy  with  every  order  of 
man  and  knows  his  relationship  with  each,  and  his  place  among 
all,  is  a  higher  and  happier  human  factor  than  the  one  who 
knows  only  the  isolated  kind  of  his  own  exclusive  type. 

Fashion  and  customs  have  tried  hard  to  establish  a,  society 
of  snobs,  and  a  home  of  personal  and  selfish  luxury,  but  the 
best  in  human  nature  is  never  content  with  such  a  standard. 
National  fellowship  spreads  its  wings  and  flies  to  the  heart  of 
its  kind,  and  wealth  and  comfort  become  unhappy  burdens  un- 

254 


THE    HOME    AND    SOCIETY 

less  put  to  the  active  use  of  some  splendid  idea.  The  abuse  of 
great  forces  foretells  the  use,  and  as  society  initiates  the  first,  so 
the  social  unit  declares  the  latter. 

In  the  small  circle  rests  the  hope  of  the  future,  for  while  the 
large  body  has  greater  capacity  and  variety,  it  is  not  so  easily 
moved  to  new  life,  for  the  reason  that  it  is  hard  to  develop  a 
high  order  of  consciousness  unless  the  reasons  why  and  the  right 
feeling  be  given  close  and  concentrated  attention  and  study,  and 
such  concerted  action  is  more  easily  arrived  at  in  the  smaller 
group.  People  come  closer  together,  understand  each  other 
better  and  sympathize  more  readily,  thereby  co-operating  in 
time  more  effectively. 

The  great  social  body  is  apt  to  make  one  feel  his  own  limita- 
tions and  insignificance  and  reduce  one's  sense  of  power — while 
the  small  group  encourages  growth,  independence  and  impor- 
tance, and  reveals  the  truth  of  the  greatness  of  the  individual, 
through  the  personal  results  in  coming  closely  in  touch  with  the 
few. 

One  constructive,  courageous,  and  idealistic  member  of  society, 
can,  if  he  chooses,  so  mould  the  lives  and  conditions  about  him 
as  to  affect  not  only  the  present  age,  but  the  life  of  the  universe, 
in  the  ages  to  come. 

The  home  influence  of  course,  should  hold  the  balance  between 
the  too  exaggerated  sense  of  personal  importance  and  the 
conventional  order  of  society  that  would  destructively  swallow 
up  all  initiative,  originality,  and  freedom  of  action,  for  either 
extreme  brings  social  disaster. 

The  obligation  in  every  act  would  normally  consider  first, 
the  welfare  of  the  family  and  the  individual  members ;  next,  the 
community  or  the  social  groups ;  then  the  public  or  the  civic 
body,  although  frequently  we  find  it  imperative  to  think  and 
act  inversely  as  it  were,  and  work  from  a  public  motive  or  a 
large  general  social  point  of  view,  in  order  that  the  individual 
member  of  society  may  best  reap  the  benefit.  The  highest 
social  standards — which  of  course  all  hope  to  approach — are 
those  that  include  a  consciousness  of  the  whole  universe  in  every 
act ;  a  rational  connection  with  the  past,  an  intimate  feeling  of 
the  present,  and  a  vision  or  perception  of  the  future  conse- 

255 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

quences.  This  might  suggest  a  labored  and  over-serious  atti- 
tude, were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  of  himself  man  can  do  noth- 
ing,— he  is  but  a  mere  puppet, — but  with  the  right  sense  of  the 
great  creative  force  back  of  him,  in  him,  about  him,  and  through 
him,  he  becomes  in  truth  a  living  God,  a  fit  medium  for  the 
expression  of  his  own  spirit,  through  coming  in  touch  with  the 
spirit  of  his  Maker,  thus  his  acts  are  free  and  spontaneous,  for 
while  he  feels  a  sense  of  responsibility  to  be  an  ever-ready  and 
active  medium  for  the  highest  force,  he  throws  all  care  of  result 
from  his  imperfect  order  of  management,  into  the  larger  order 
that  is  of  creation  and  that  permeates  even  into  the  midst  of 
every  trifling  circumstance. 

An  Efficient  Society,  whether  large  or  small,  in  the  home  or 
out  of  the  home,  is  one  whose  ideal  is  to  understand  and  enjoy 
human  nature  wherever  found ;  because  it  expresses  God  in  this 
world  more  nearly  than  any  other  form  of  life  we  know.  It 
would  interest  itself  in  the  greatest  pleasure  and  wisest  form  of 
social  contact  and  would  study  how  best  to  appreciate  the 
virtues  of  each  and  eliminate  the  vices  of  all.  It  would  give 
everyone  an  opportunity,  a  chance  to  enter  the  inner  and  higher 
circle  of  greatness  at  all  times,  but  would  receive  none  who  had 
not  proved  worthy  through  his  or  her  own  personal  effort; 
neither  blood,  money,  or  influence  would  count.  Only  the  merit 
system  would  prevail.  Proper  records  would  classify  the  people 
of  a  community,  and  every  possible  encouragement  and  help 
would  be  given  those  in  the  outer  circle.  Pleasures  and  enter- 
tainment would  be  constantly  planned  and  carried  out  with  the 
purpose  of  giving  a  fair  chance  to  all.  It  would  be  the  delight 
of  the  few  to  plan  for  the  profit  of  the  many,  and  the  conditions 
and  the  carrying  out  of  these  plans  would  be  as  perfect  as  the 
whole  society  could  determine. 

Thus  would  the  home  and  society  purify  itself,  and  the  efficient 
society  members  become  the  highest  type  of  social  unit,  en- 
couraging a  brotherhood  with  one's  fellow-men  through  a  hearty 
desire  to  understand  and  enjoy  human  nature  and  the  fact  of 
our  relationship  to  each  other  being  the  most  important  thing 
in  life. 


256 


CHAPTER    III 

EDUCATION   AND    THE   HOME 

"Real  education  starts  with  inspiration,  leads  to  action,  and  ends 
in  satisfaction  of  teacher  and  taught" 

"The  household  is  the  liome  of  the  man  as  well  as  of  the  child. 
We  owe  to  man  higher  success  than  food  and  fire.  We  owe  to 
man,  man.  If  he  is  sick,  is  unable,  is  mean-spirited  and  odious, 
it  is  because  there  is  so  much  of  his  nature  that  is  unlawfully 
withholden  from  him" 

At  first  thought  it  may  appear  that  the  education  of  the  child, 
along  with  many  other  of  the  requirements  of  the  earlier  family 
life,  has  passed  out  of  the  domain  of  the  modern  home  altogether 
and  into  the  public  stock  of  social  supplies.  The  community 
having  assumed  the  responsibility,  the  parents  are  thus  relieved 
of  any  serious  need  for  effort,  save  among  the  few  who  may 
choose  to  maintain  personal  control  for  special  purposes.  This 
change  is  the  result  of  the  idea  that  all  such  work  is  better  and 
more  scientifically  performed  by  school  experts,  skilled  espe- 
cially in  pedagogy  and  the  study  of  child  life,  coupled  with  a 
more  or  less  theoretical  knowledge  of  what  is  most  needed  for 
the  carrying  out  of  the  policies  and  principles  of  the  collective 
national  life. 

It  is  undeniable  that  great  good  has  been  accomplished  by 
the  separation  of  the  school  from  the  home.  It  has  helped 
in  broadening  the  point  of  view,  giving  a  certain  discipline  to 
the  mind  in  action,  reducing  the  similar  human  elements  and 
ability  to  a  common  denominator  for  more  uniform  action,  and 
bringing  about  a  closer  democratic  relationship  between  the 
people  of  the  country,  just  as  infinite  benefit  has  come  from 
detaching  the  various  industries  from  the  home,  certain  recrea- 
tions, and  religious  rites,  thus  making  the  church  stand 
for  the  Christian  training  of  the  people.  Yet  this  sort  of 
divorce  from  the  natural  heart  center,  carries  with  it  grave 
danger  that  can  only  be  overcome  through  realizing  the  mean- 

257 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

ing  and  function  of  the  true  home  and  its  place  in  society,  and 
taking  a  more  live  and  growing  attitude  toward  the  thing  we 
call  education.  There  are  but  few  fundamental  bed-rock  facts 
— as  it  were — from  which  all  conditions  result.  A  creative 
Force,  called  God.  Human  existence,  as  the  child  of  God. 
The  earth  the  Mother,  and  natural  law  and  order  the  teacher 
and  guide  of  the  soul.  The  origin  of  the  family  group  is  thus 
rooted  in  life  itself.  The  seed  is  of  the  man ;  the  environment 
for  its  development,  the  responsibility  of  woman;  the  growing 
product  or  result,  the  child  and  all  it  embodies.  Together 
these  three  elements  form  a  nucleus,  or  center,  called  the  home. 
A  live  and  complete  cell  in  the  great  body  of  Existence,  where 
everything  that  is  brought  into  contact  and  assimilated,  passes 
into  the  life  forces  that  make  up  the  soul  and  vitality  of  this 
organism,  thus  developing  its  form  of  usefulness.  The  danger, 
therefore,  in  taking  away  any  of  its  native  functions,  is  in  mak- 
ing less  fruitful,  less  healthy,  less  normal  and  therefore  less 
active  this  genetic  social  cell,  and  substituting  a  kind  of  public 
machinery  for  the  performance  of  what  should  be  accomplished 
through  the  integrity  of  the  family  hearth.  For  unless  the 
utmost  care  and  interest  is  taken,  the  school  becomes  an  insti- 
tution; lifeless  and  soulless  within  itself,  performing  a  routine 
of  duties  more  or  less  in  the  spirit  of  drudgery,  and  grinding 
out  mechanically  a  common  and  uniform  mould  of  character 
with  no  particular  understanding  of  itself  in  relation  to  the 
surrounding  life. 

Education  should  develop  the  imagination  to  bear  upon  life, 
but  the  average  student  not  only  uses  this  faculty  very  little,  but 
is  totally  unconscious  of  any  native  ability  to  create  a  life  of 
his  own,  merely  by  the  practical  application  of  a  trained  imag- 
ination brought  to  bear  upon  the  most  mundane  and  common- 
place material  at  hand. 

An  institution  is  by  the  nature  of  its  formation  an  organiza- 
tion, and  an  organization  can  be  at  best  but  a  tool,  for  it  is 
designed  by  adding  together  parts,  and  operates  through  manip- 
ulation, as  any  other  machine,  and  not  by  absorption,  assimila- 
tion, and  the  creative  sense  of  an  organism. -^The  difference 
being  that  found  between  a  live,  organic  functioning  body  and 

258 


EDUCATION    AND    THE    HOME 

a  dead,  inorganic,  revolving  machine.  So  that  only  in  so  far 
as  organized  institutions  are  constantly  vitalized  through  the 
consciousness  of  their  spiritual  relationship  to  the  whole  of 
life,  and  their  particular  function  therein,  conformed  to  an  ideal, 
and  operated  in  a  free  and  spontaneous  method  in  producing 
the  highest  form  of  human  expression  compatible  with  the  times, 
are  they  safe  appliances  in  the  hands  of  civilization.  So  much 
for  institutions  in  general,  and  the  church  and  school  in  par- 
ticular. 

Now,  while  the  home  may  be  called  an  institution  in  one  sense, 
and  while  it  needs  above  all  things  to  be  reorganized,  the  insti- 
tution is  of  God ;  a  natural  grouping  of  the  creative  forces  into 
the  one  live  unit  of  society,  and  the  organization  needed  is  in 
the  establishment  of  a  workable  ideal  that  will  make  it  possible 
for  this  highest  form  of  social  cell  to  normally  and  efficiently 
perform  its  particular  part  in  relation  to  the  entire  universe. 
For  the  home  is  the  life  cell  of  the  world,  and  will  endure  so  long 
as  the  earth  itself  revolves. 

Therefore,  instead  of  its  being  simply  "the  woman's  place," 
as  it  is  called,  it  is  the  only  form  of  atmosphere  in  which  men, 
and  children  as  well,  can  develop  their  best  powers,  and  its 
entire  perfection  is  the  only  orderly  educational  foundation  and 
means  of  growth  for  any  nation. 

The  point  to  hold  in  mind  then,  is  the  danger  in  performing 
any  operation  that  may  reduce  the  home's  inherent  efficiency, 
or  cut  away  one  part — even  in  thought — that  helps  to  make 
up  the  complete  body.  What  then  is  to  be  done?  For  it  is 
clearly  evident  that  no  one  home  can  effectively  include  the 
needs  of  the  whole  universe  any  more  than  an  individual  can 
compass  the  myriad  of  subjects  brought  to  his  isolated  attention. 
The  answer  is,  not  that  the  work  of  the  man-designed  institu- 
tion must  come  back  to  the  home,  but  that  the  home,  to  save 
itself  and  them,  must  go  forward  and  out,  to  regenerate  the 
institution.  These  should  become  home-like  in  the  right  and 
big  sense,  encouraging  the  greatest  freedom  of  action  and  ex- 
pression, through  intelligent  personal  human  understanding  and 
sympathy,  establishing  a  kind  of  discipline,  the  result  of  willing 
conformity  to  law,  and  giving  to  the  other  fellow  the  same 

259 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

opportunity  one  would  have  for  one's  self,  and  the  creating 
of  an  atmosphere  that  will  best  bring  into  outer  activity  the 
complete  being  of  the  inner  soul  of  the  child. 

The  word  educational  means  to  draw  out,  although  the  aver- 
age school  strives  to  put  in,  leaving  the  home  to  make  the  useful 
application.  Perhaps  there  is  no  situation  where  old  and  young 
alike  may  be  so  readily  and  normally  drawn  out  into  natural 
and  original  expression  as  at  the  family  hearth,  and  the  family 
table  of  the  truly  home-like  home.  And  as  to  the  hours  just 
before  sleep,  they  are  actually  impregnated  with  future  possi- 
bilities for  both  mind  and  heart.  The  most  fertile  moments 
for  mother  influence  in  the  whole  calendar  of  time. 

Of  course  these  particular  features  are  unthinkable  and  un- 
practical in  the  midst  of  great  public  groupings  of  people, 
whether  it  be  the  children  in  school,  the  church,  or  state  asso- 
ciations. The  idea  being  that  it  is  not  so  much  the  small  circle, 
or  the  hearth  and  dinner  table,  as  what  these  things  stand  for, 
and  have  stood  for  through  the  ages ;  the  common  purpose  and 
intimate  understanding  of  each  other  in  work  and  play ;  the 
proper  quality  of  food  and  nourishment  needed  for  each  group ; 
the  restful  confidence  of  the  evening  hour, — the  result  of  kindly 
interest,  good-will  and  inspiration  coming  to  the  surface  and 
the  very  heart  of  the  hearth — which  gives  warmth,  confidence, 
a  sense  of  protection,  and  the  live  spark  of  individual  initiation, 
encouraged  into  action.  Such  a  condition  is  neither  visionary, 
nor  impossible.  On  the  contrary  every  institution  in  the  coun- 
try is  wishing  for  higher  standards  of  results,  with  less  cost 
and  waste  along  the  line  of  operation.  And  as  we  view  it  from 
the  home  standpoint  there  is  no  possible  way  of  arriving  at 
this  desired  end,  except  by  extending  the  essence  and  interest 
of  the  home  into  practically  every  public  undertaking.  Start- 
ing with  the  State  itself  as  the  private  home  of  each  family ;  the 
City  as  its  threshold,  and  the  house  the  immediate  place  from 
which  and  in  which  the  home-consciousness  and  home-sense  is 
brought  into  being,  nourished,  and  developed.  Here  belong 
both  the  man  and  woman,  and  all  they  represent ;  different  in 
function,  but  the  same  in  purpose ;  different  in  ability,  but  the 
same  in  desire;  different  in  method,  but  the  same  in  object;  dif- 

260 


EDUCATION    AND    THE    HOME 

ferent  in  thought,  but  the  same  in  progress ;  different  in  feeling, 
but  the  same  in  life.  Until  these  two  work  just  as  definitely 
together  and  are  as  much  at  home  in  the  making  and  moulding 
of  the  City,  the  State,  and  the  Nation,  disorganization,  disorder, 
and  discontent  will  be  rampant,  ending  in  riot,  disease,  and  war. 
The  feminine  element  is  needed  in  public  administration ;  tragic- 
ally and  positively  needed.  Women  should  realize  that  they 
have  not  been  relieved  one  iota  by  appropriating  modern  in- 
ventions, comforts,  and  materials ;  they  have  but  changed  their 
plane  of  functioning.  It  is  as  necessary  to  know  and  have  a 
part  in  the  way  of  manufacturing  the  foods  and  supplies  made 
out  of  the  house,  as  it  ever  was  to  know  how  to  cook  the  bread 
and  meat  in  the  house.  It  is  as  essential  to  watch  and  take 
part  in  the  making  and  moving  of  the  policies  and  methods  of 
the  school,  as  it  ever  was  to  teach  the  child  at  the  knee.  It  is  as 
important  for  the  woman  to  create  the  atmosphere  of  the  larger 
home, — the  State — through  direct  management  of  its  parts,  as 
it  is  for  her  to  preside  over  the  results  of  the  various  depart- 
ments in  the  smaller  home  of  the  house.  The  demand  has  come. 
It  is  here.  Everywhere  we  are  suffering  from  an  artificial  and 
abnormal  world  built  up  with  half  its  elements  and  only  a  part 
of  its  organs.  Men  are  splendid!  And  the  institutions  are 
wonderful !  But  men  are  only  half  the  world,  and  institutions, 
in  so  far  as  they  are  institutions,  are  heartless,  lifeless,  soul- 
less tools,  brought  into  being  as  Frankenstein  was,  with  the 
same  danger  of  falling  and  crushing  to  pieces  all  within  their 
reach.  Nitrogen  alone  is  dangerous,  but  united  with  its  natural 
elements,  it  supports  life  in  the  air. 

But  let  us  not  be  deluded  into  the  idea  of  thinking  that  women 
are  the  missing  link  between  the  now  and  the  millennium.  The 
missing  link  is  not  the  women  in  themselves,  but  the  higher 
appreciation  of  both  men  and  women  as  to  their  co-operative 
possibilities  in  all  relationship.  Man  must  learn  that  environ- 
ment is  as  important  as  the  divine  seed  of  authority.  Woman 
must  further  cultivate  and  apply  the  larger  home-sense  as  it 
includes  the  universe,  and  rid  herself  of  pettiness  in  action,  small- 
ness  of  vision,  and  all  dependent  thought  and  feeling,  and  learn 
to  administer  her  own  home  in  the  spirit  of  a  domestic  conqueror 

261 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

— through  a  more  complete  knowledge  of  its  elements — not  let- 
ting it  harass  or  control  her.  She  will  then  be  prepared  to  be 
of  real  service  in  the  better  efficiency  of  the  State  home,  and 
to  express  in  herself  the  true  religion  and  ideal  of  democracy, 
which  we  are  only  beginning  to  crudely  interpret  in  this  country, 
where  we  will  soon  find  it  necessary,  it  seems,  not  only  to  develop 
and  preserve  this  form  of  government  for  our  own  safety,  but  in 
the  light  or  darkness  of  what  is  now  happening  in  Europe, 
America  must  be  the  example  for  the  whole  world,  of  successful 
republican  administration  and  democratic  realization,  through  a 
progressively  practical  idealism.  The  women  must  come  to  the 
front  and  willingly  shoulder  their  special  responsibilities,  in 
order  that  the  men  may  not  have  to  go  to  the  front  and  subject 
themselves  to  inhuman  tools  for  mutilization.  Women  are  the 
creators  of  those  soldiers'  bodies.  Are  they  not  then  justified 
in  declarmg  that  their  sons  shall  not  be  thus  wickedly  exploited? 
—human  victims  in  the  hands  of  PERSONAL  PRIVILEGE. 
Subjected  to  atrocious  jfooZ-methods  for  the  attempted  righting 
of  public  wrongs.  The  conservatives  tell  us  war  is  inevitable, 
but  we  know  it  is  brought  about  by  long  time  unright  policies, 
and  unnatural  divisions;  therefore  men  promote  it.  Surely 
women  are  needed  as  watchful  and  active  guardians  of  these 
permanent  policies,  for  if  everyone  opposed  to  war  is  not  active 
in  such  opposition,  he  or  she  becomes  one  of  the  causes  and 
helps  war  to  be. 

And  let  us  not  think  ourselves  secure,  or  one  whit  better  than 
the  world's  scientific  standard — Germany.  The  art  model — 
France.  Or  the  commercial  and  civilizing  English  center.  For 
we  are  made  of  the  same  stuff,  and  subject  to  the  same  emotions. 
They  are  fighting  for  power,  believing  it  will  bring  them  free- 
dom. We  are  struggling  for  freedom,  hoping  it  will  bring  us 
power.  Neither  is  right  at  the  do  re.  What  we  must  all  fight 
for,  men  and  women  together,  and  the  children  as  well,  is  the 
Freedom  that  cares  not  for  power,  so  long  as  it  is  true  in  itself : 
wealth  and  greatness  being  mere  incidents  by  the  way.  It  is 
certain  that  Freedom  is  the  goal,  but  obedience  is  the  method, 
for  there  is  no  Freedom  that  is  not  of  God,  and  no  way  of 
arriving  thereat,  save  through  a  practical  schooling  in  human 

262 


EDUCATION    AND    THE    HOME 

relationship,  united  by  ideals  for  motives  and  co-operative  effort 
as  the  means.  The  same  love  of  God,  and  brotherhood  of  man, 
translated  as  freedom  of  the  soul,  and  interested  service  for  the 
like  freedom  of  other  souls.  Power  we  know  is  no  longer  un- 
derstood as  God-like.  Love  is  the  divine  Creator,  and  love,  to 
be  real  love,  must  be  free. 

We  are  becoming  emancipated  from  the  medieval  form  of 
obedience  founded  upon  fear,  and  are  beginning  to  appreciate 
an  obedience  founded  upon  love,  but  the  transition  is  a  delicate 
and  confusing  one.  Children  are  being  freed  from  the  fear  of 
parent,  teacher,  and  priest,  only  to  find  themselves  in  a  state  of 
little  reverence,  respect,  or  deference  for  anything ;  and  parents, 
teachers  and  pastors  are  wondering  what  to  do.  Is  it  not  our 
fault?  Do  we  hold  things  in  such  reverence  as  to  be  living, 
modern  examples  to  the  new  kind  of  youth?  We  must  open  up 
more  avenues  for  expression.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  nega- 
tive goodness,  and  the  child  with  normal  energy,  who  obeys 
the  law  because  he  knows  its  meaning,  is  safer  than  the  one 
forced,  or  authorized  into  obedience.  The  trouble  is,  children 
are  not  made  to  understand  the  law  and  thus  come  into  sym- 
pathy with  its  workings.  Self-control,  cause  and  effect,  and 
personal  relationship,  can  be  taught  even  in  the  baby  age,  thus 
making  these  elements  second  nature  to  the  boy  and  girl.  All 
education  is  tending  in  this  direction.  For  while  we  realize 
education  should  never  stop  at  any  age,  the  school  is  becoming 
more  intensive  in  its  form  of  cultivation,  reaching  back  from 
the  primary  to  the  kindergarten,  from  the  kindergarten  to  the 
nursery,  from  the  nursery  to  the  right  conditions  for  the  Child 
that  is  to  be  born. 

Such  honest  effort,  together  with  the  training  in  how  to  do 
things,  how  to  look  upon  things,  and  how  to  make  the  most  of 
one's  self,  in  the  midst  of  what  is  now  condemned  as  the  common 
material  of  every-day  life, — beautifying  and  dignifying  one's 
surroundings  in  the  process — is  the  kind  of  co-operation  needed 
between  the  home  and  school.  The  State  is  the  solution,  as  it 
has  of  its  own  initiative  become  the  home  of  the  people,  taking 
over  the  greater  part  of  the  food,  clothing  and  shelter  condi- 
tions, educating  the  children,  caring  for  the  sick  and  infirm, 

263 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC   ENGINEERING 

providing  the  means  of  transportation,  and  helping  to  encourage 
more  and  more  the  means  for  greater  culture.  To  have  this 
plan  of  civilization  succeed,  it  must  become  the  great  concern 
of  every  individual  citizen.  The  seed  has  been  planted  for  the 
larger  and  richer  home.  The  environment  must  be  created,  and 
the  hearth  and  table  made  ready  for  the  coming  of  the  longed- 
for  child — Freedom — whose  life  can  only  be  secure  and  true  to 
itself  where  Love  of  God,  of  Man,  and  of  Home  prevail. 


264 


CHAPTER    IV 

MUNICIPAL    HOUSEKEEPING 

"There  will  never  come  a  time  when  the  most  direct  means  of  pro- 
moting health,  education  and  opportunity  will  not  be  through 
government" 

A  civic  conscience,  commonly  called  public  spirit,  expressing 
itself  in  action  rather  than  criticism,  is  a  flower  of  such  rare 
occurrence  as  to  deserve  special  attention  from  home-makers, 
careful  nurturing  and  greater  appreciation. 

To  feel  one's  City,  or  Community,  a  definite  part  of  one's  self, 
to  realize  the  power  and  effectiveness  of  united  sentiments, 
standards  and  situations,  and  their  reflex  influence  upon  the 
individual,  is  the  thing  of  prime  importance  in  creating  condi- 
tions for  the  individual's  profit.  Environment  is  a  factor  of 
such  tremendous  weight  as  to  seem  at  first  all-controlling,  when 
viewed  from  the  standpoint  that  the  whole  of  nature  seems  to 
be  occupied  solely  in  trying  to  live  and  protect  itself  amidst 
conditions  that  exist  contrary  to  its  will.  Yet  these  seeming 
obstacles  about  us  are  perhaps  the  wisest  provision  of  Mother 
Nature,  in  that  they  are  the  ever-ready  means  for  the  develop- 
ment of  a  much-to-be-desired  personality.  The  extension  of 
self  from  a  cramped  and  meager  consciousness  to  a  complete 
god-like  and  self-directed  existence. 

But  while  there  are  always  at  hand  innumerable  opportunities 
for  such  development,  nothing  is  effected  unless  they  be  actively 
grasped  and  made  fertile  by  those  who  would  wisely  build  into 
the  future,  through  making  the  most  of  the  present.  It  has 
been  shown  by  psychologists  that  there  are  but  six  motives  mov- 
ing the  human  soul  to  action — Health,  Wealth,  Sociability, 
Knowledge,  Beauty  and  Rightness — and  that  every  interest  of 
man  projects  itself  from  these.  If  this  be  so, — and  there  seems 
little  reason  to  doubt  such  an  analysis — then  the  concern  of  the 
group  is  identical  with  the  concern  of  each  personal  unit,  for  is 

265 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

not  every  man  in  search  of  health,  wealth,  sociability,  knowledge, 
beauty  and  Tightness?  And  where  shall  the  whole  be  found 
except  in  co-operative  practice  ?  He  who  arrives  at  a  monopoly 
in  any  one  of  these  fields,  or  who  would  live  to  himself  at  the 
expense  of  others,  forfeits  his  claim  by  the  action  of  that  simple 
and  authoritative  law — "No  man  liveth  unto  himself  alone." 
In  such  action  he  would  starve  and  die,  for  the  soul  possesses 
only  that  which  it  gives.  The  psychological  miser  is  more 
despicable  than  the  money  hoarder. 

While  the  average  home  endures  but  for  a  generation,  its 
influence  in  the  city  is  more  definite  and  should  be  more  potent 
than  the  most  public  spirited  of  any  single  individuals,  for  the 
reason  that  it  comes  in  touch  with  the  city  from  a  larger  number 
of  sides,  has  a  greater  variety  of  purposes,  is  a  more  permanent 
factor  and  provides  the  best  of  schooling  in  effective  co-oper- 
ative effort.  Its  motives  are  the  same  as  the  motive  of  the 
single  soul ;  neither  do  they  differ  in  the  least  from  the  motives 
of  the  collective  soul.  Upon  slight  reflection  we  find  the  City, 
State  and  Nation  all  actuated  by  the  same  identical  six  ideas, 
differing  only  in  form,  degree  and  the  method  of  arrival.  The 
unit  housekeeper  in  her  effort  to  realize  these  desires,  is  uncon- 
sciously establishing  standards  of  municipal  living  and  of 
municipal  housekeeping.  Health,  Wealth,  Sociability,  Knowl- 
edge, Beauty  and  Rightness  are  City  aims,  just  as  they  are 
personal  and  home  ambitions.  The  road  of  arriving  varies 
with  the  character  of  the  town.  The  degree  in  expression,  of 
the  ideals  to  be  supported,  and  the  manner  of  approach,  as- 
sumes its  form  through  the  variety  of  individual  temperament. 
In  this  last  we  find  the  greatest  cause  of  discontent.  It  seems 
to  be  as  hard  for  Cities  to  agree  as  to  the  right  way  of  pro- 
cedure, as  for  families  and  individuals.  So  that  the  united 
effort  should  be :  First ;  to  understand  that  as  everybody  is  prac- 
tically after  the  same  thing,  the  pressure  and  pull  should  be 
together :  Second ;  to  determine  what  is  possible  of  realization : 
and  Third,  to  so  educate  ourselves  as  to  know  what  truly  is  the 
best  road  to  take  to  fulfill  the  purpose  of  the  life  of  the  City, 
for  the  City  has  a  life  and  a  soul  just  as  surely  as  the  life  and 
soul  is  in  the  body  of  the  home.  And  the  individual  home  that 

266 


MUNICIPAL    HOUSEKEEPING 

does  not  contribute  to  the  vigor  of  the  City  by  helping  in  the 
larger  work,  and  joining  in  the  public  play,  is  insufficient  in 
itself  and  a  distinct  obstacle  in  social  development. 

The  larger  businesslike  methods  are  needed  for  the  operation 
of  the  modern  progressive  home  just  as  the  closer  sense  of  co- 
operation, sympathy  and  responsibility  of  home  effort  is  needed 
in  municipal  affairs.  A  right  kind  of  emotion  too,  is  as  essential 
in  public  work  as  in  any  private  undertaking.  A  Cause  should 
be  as  absorbing  as  self-preservation,  for  in  truth  they  are  one 
and  the  same.  An  individual  may  declare  he  does  this  and  that 
of  himself,  or  he  would  do  thus  and  so,  if  in  power ;  yet  in  reality 
City  standards  are  the  result  of  what  he  is  right  now,  and  what 
he  and  the  people  actually  want  and  are  willing  to  help  to 
realize. 

Hospitals,  Reform  Schools,  Jails  and  Alms  Houses  are  de- 
sired, because  it  makes  people  uncomfortable  to  know  of,  and  to 
see,  suffering,  and  when  this  demand  is  supplied,  a  kind  of 
philanthropic  pride  and  callous  inactivity  settles  down  upon  a 
town,  until  either  scandalous  abuses,  or  insufficient  housing 
wakes  the  lethargic  into  new  effort. 

The  fact  that  all  such  institutions  are  disease  spots  in  the 
body  politic — frightful  cancers  that  eat  away  the  City's  sub- 
stance and  feed  upon  themselves,  establishing  a  kind  of  conta- 
gion from  which  no  member  of  society  wholly  escapes — does  not 
seem  to  occur  to  the  average  citizen.  In  the  efficient  city  these 
things  will  be  reduced  to  a  minimum,  for  they  are  a  form  of 
waste,  in  the  worst  sense  of  the  term,  human,  unnecessary  waste, 
opposing  not  only  the  six  motives  in  progressive  development, 
but  the  final  goal  in  creative  perfection.  If  we  would  study 
ourselves  and  our  lives  from  the  highest  standpoints,  harmony 
and  health  must  rule  the  day.  As  the  body  is  the  result  of 
one's  own  acts,  so  the  City  is  no  less  the  result  of  its  own  mak- 
ing. Sewers  and  Housing,  Streets  and  Sanitation,  the  Markets, 
Recreations,  Education  and  the  entire  environment,  when  ap- 
proached with  a  high  ideal  and  an  intelligent  businesslike  de- 
termination to  produce  and  invest  in  each  and  all,  for  efficient 
human  returns  only,  will  be  the  means  of  wiping  out  such  dis- 
ease and  suffering  as  poverty,  ignorance  and  crime,  and  thus 

267 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

the  building  for  their  refuge, — as  the  rays  of  the  sun  clean 
the  poisoned  atmosphere  and  brighten  the  lives  of  the  people. 
But  co-operation  is  the  only  road  to  take.  This  cannot  be 
repeated  too  often.  Co-operation  in  municipal  affairs,  co-oper- 
ation in  home  concerns,  co-operation  of  home  and  city.  Men 
and  women,  and  even  children,  must  learn  to  have  a  greater 
interest  in,  and  a  love  for  their  City,  by  having  a  more  direct 
part  in  its  government,  knowing  all  sides,  and  doing  their  best 
to  bring  about  more  perfect  and  healthy  every-day  living  con- 
ditions. Aside  from  the  pride  of  a  City,  and  the  desire  of  its 
people  to  have  the  best  there  is,  and  so  be  equal  to  any  other 
town  of  its  kind,  the  object  in  a  "City  Beautiful"  is  to  arouse 
among  its  own  inhabitants  a  greater  love  for,  and  interest  in 
their  home-town.  An  orderly,  restful,  good-looking,  and  at 
the  same  time  live  and  active  town,  is  more  highly  thought  of 
by  guests  and  natives  alike,  than  a  careless,  unenterprising  one. 
It  is  a  pleasure  to  feel  one  is  living  in  such  an  one,  that  one 
breathes  its  air,  is  a  part  of  it  and  has  helped  to  create  it,  and 
it  is  a  joy  to  return  to  it  on  every  occasion. 

City  planning  is  perhaps  more  directly  a  business  undertak- 
ing. The  economic  advantages  are  considered  and  the  natural 
growth  more  readily  guided  by  those  who  have  it  in  charge,  but 
from  an  efficiency  standpoint,  from  the  standard  of  development, 
ideals,  and  results,  the  element  of  beauty  becomes  a  wise  and 
progressive  necessity,  and  one  that  should  never  be  neglected 
in  any  serious  city-plan  interest. 

The  Government  that  concerns  itself  with  the  true  welfare 
of  the  City,  takes  account  of  all  these  phases  of  that  one  great 
purpose ;  educating  the  people  constantly  to  want  what  is  best, 
while  they  decide  what  their  standards  of  municipal  achieve- 
ment and  opportunity  shall  be. 


268 


CHAPTER    V 

ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CONSUMER 

"The  housekeeper  is  the  great  factor  in  determining  the  use  of 
Agricultural  products,  and  more  important  stillt  in  her  hands 
is  the  n>elfare  of  the  family  and  the  state" 

The  increasing  importance  of  the  home-maker  as  consumer, 
carries  with  it  so  great  a  moral  responsibility  for  the  woman  in 
her  civic  association,  that  it  can  only  be  adequately  met  through 
a  collective  effort  to  intelligently  fulfill  this  function,  in  order 
that  each  may  act  effectively  in  furthering  the  prosperity  of  the 
community.  She  it  is  who  spends  90  per  cent,  of  all  that  is  spent 
for  food,  shelter  and  clothing,  and  she  is  the  last  tribunal  in 
determining  just  what  these  things  shall  be.  Her  interest  as 
consumer  covers  the  home  and  the  farm,  the  town  and  the 
country,  and  is  interwoven  with  the  people  and  the  conditions 
of  each.  In  the  days  when  she  worked  in  the  fields  with  her 
own  hands,  and  helped  to  produce  the  material  for  the  home, 
she  combined  in  herself  the  three  functions  of  producer,  con- 
sumer and  protector,  but  when  in  time  she  had  to  buy  many, 
or  all  of  the  commodities  used,  she  assumed  a  new  role,  that  of 
purchasing  agent  and  business  manager,  when  instead  of  know- 
ing how  to  produce  the  raw  material  and  the  various  forms  it 
might  take,  she  needs  must  become  skilled  in  selection,  in  judg- 
ment, and  in  the  value  of  the  manufacturer's  standards. 

Individually  she  has  been  untiring  in  her  demand  for  variety, 
her  search  for  novelty,  and  her  abundant  use  of  the  many  things 
offered,  but  there  has  come  a  time  when  she  is  weary  of  choosing 
for  a  fastidious  family.  She  is  confused  with  the  complexities 
that  have  arisen,  and  is  tired  of  giving  herself  and  her  money 
to  so  many  things  that  are  fruitless,  but  finds  herself  helpless 
in  the  grip  of  the  manner  and  custom  of  her  environment. 
What  has  been  sowed  singly  is  being  reaped  collectively.  And 
the  one  who  would  have  the  things  truly  worth  while,  is  power- 
less in  lieu  of  the  general  demand. 

269 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

It  has,  however,  become  a  simple  matter  to  gather  a  few  in- 
terested ones  together,  who  are  of  the  same  mind,  and  effect 
a  campaign  that  arrives  at  the  thing  desired,  by  sufficiently  im- 
pressing the  public  mind.  One  of  the  leading  and  lasting  bene- 
fits of  the  Woman's  Club  is  the  fact  that  she  has  learned  from 
practical  experience  how  to  organize.  The  sense  of  organiza- 
tion acquired  in  the  practice  of  pulling  together  in  a  subject 
of  mutual  interest,  is  worth  all  the  failures  involved.  It  has 
generated  a  feeling  of  power  and  ability  to  accomplish  the  big 
things  impossible  and  unthinkable  for  the  individual  alone,  even 
though  in  the  final  effort  it  is  the  individual  that  moves  the 
mass.  The  study  of  standards  in  a  community  would  be  an 
appropriate  and  interesting  club  program,  and  when  entered 
upon  with  a  constructive  and  co-operative  spirit,  of  enormous 
value  to  everyone.  The  organization  of  a  Board  of  Buyers 
to  help  each  other  in  the  search  for  better  material,  as  the  Board 
of  Trade  are  associated  for  better  business,  would  help  and  at 
the  same  time  assure  quality. 

The  work  of  the  Housewife's  League  in  trying  to  establish 
the  sanitary  conditions  about  the  shop  and  marketplace,  and 
particularly  in  establishing  Public  Markets,  is  an  effort  in  the 
right  direction,  but  more  work  is  needed  and  a  broader  influence 
required.  One  that  will  reach  from  the  knowledge  and  practice  of 
agriculture  as  it  touches  the  home  and  the  State,  the  condition 
of  the  roads,  and  the  methods  of  distribution,  to  the  values 
found  in  the  shop ; — the  whole  matter  of  consumption  and 
efficiency  in  selection, — that  will  assure  the  lessening  of  waste, 
the  guarantee  of  a  hundred  cents'  worth  for  a  dollar,  and  the 
increase  of  real  substance. 

We  know  that  the  consumer,  distributor,  producer  and  Gov- 
ernment must  come  together  in  any  permanent  effort  to  reduce 
the  cost  of  living.  And  that  it  involves  everything  from  the 
present  unjust  system  of  monopoly  and  taxation  to  the  luxurious 
habit  of  having  one's  boots  buttoned  by  hired  labor,  and  the 
demanding  of  fresh  strawberries  and  cucumbers  in  January. 
Nevertheless  it  is  the  question  of  moment  for  every  man  and 
woman  in  the  country,  and  the  writer  is  not  sure  but  that  the 
women  in  the  case  hold  the  only  key  to  the  situation.  It  is  said, 

270 


ORGANIZATION    OF    THE    CONSUMER 

and  wisely,  that  if  every  woman  in  the  country  would  put  her- 
self in  a  melancholy  black  garb,  during  the  time  of  war,  refuse 
to  bear  children,  or  to  speak  even,  peace  would  be  declared 
within  a  week.  So,  if  every  woman  refused  to  buy  adulterated 
foods,  or  inferior  materials,  such  goods  would  vanish  from  the 
market,  just  as  the  price  of  eggs  and  butter  went  down  in  New 
York  City  when  The  League  refused  to  buy,  even  though  but  a 
small  fraction  of  the  housewives  denied  themselves  these  things. 
For  though  men  provide  the  money,  women  in  truth  hold  the 
purse-strings  and  decide  as  to  expenditure.  Therefore  it  may 
be  that  the  women  are  the  missing  factor  in  the  many  ineffectual 
efforts  of  the  Government  to  solve  this  question  of  the  unneces- 
sary high  cost  of  living.  Each  enterprise  needs  her  active 
co-operation,  and  she  perforce  has  no  voice  in  the  affairs  which 
she  most  controls. 

Again,  her  responsibility  is  noted  in  the  world  of  Art  and 
Literature. 

In  the  nature  of  things  these  subjects  are  becoming  more  and 
more  democratic  in  expression.  Instead  of  selling  books  and 
pictures  to  the  elect,  the  few  who  have  through  culture  and 
education  learned  to  appreciate  art  values,  our  artists  and 
writers  have  to  struggle  often  in  a  tragic  way  to  sell  their 
results  to  managers  and  editors,  who  instead  of  demanding 
what  should  appeal  to  an  educated  public,  have  only  in  mind 
a  large  class  of  careless  women  who  look  to  the  name  before  they 
admire,  and  read  only  what  is  labelled  with  a  signature,  com- 
mercializing the  creative  faculty  and  the  spirit  of  art  to  an 
extent  that  is  death  to  true  originality,  talent  and  honest  good 
work.  And  yet,  the  otherwise  social  woman  does  not  realize 
the  part  she  is  playing  in  this  wreck  of  young  geniuses,  who 
long  to  work  for  the  best  that  is  in  them,  but  who  are  stabbed 
at  the  start  by  the  character  and  kind  of  public  demand  for 
which  our — in  other  ways — conscientious  women  are  really  to 
blame. 

Much  organized  attention  is  given  to  the  poor  and  the  sick, 
and  splendid  work  has  been  accomplished  for  the  uplift  of  many 
classes,  but  it  seems  as  if  the  women  of  the  land  have  been  too 
slow  in  organizing  in  their  capacity  as  consumers,  to  help  the 

271 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

equally  pathetic  struggle  that  is  constantly  going  on  higher  up, 
and  for  which  she  as  a  consumer  is  responsible,  because  she  is 
the  final  cause.  Her  carelessness  in  food  standards  has  in- 
directly made  it  possible  for  the  United  States  Government  to 
give  the  decision  it  did  in  the  "Lexington  Mill  Case"  and  allow 
both  ignorant  and  unscrupulous  food  manufacturers  to  dope 
their  goods  at  will, — the  standard  of  the  amount  of  poison  being 
optional, — punishable  only  by  the  producing  of  those  who  are 
proved  to  have  died  by  the  use. 

The  housekeeper  buys  the  goods  for  which  these  business- 
men fought,  and  they  need  her.  If  she  knew  enough  not  to 
do  so,  such  stuff  would  not  be  produced,  and  all  the  energy 
and  enormous  cost  of  this  four-year  case  and  its  accompanying 
evils,  would  have  been  saved.  As  it  is,  the  public  is  far  worse 
off  than  it  was  before  this  decision  was  given. 

The  same  truth  holds  in  her  ignorance  of  textiles,  their 
strength  and  wearing  quality,  and  the  intelligence  of  her  demand. 
Millions  of  pieces  of  cloth  are  manufactured  with  the  sole  idea  of 
gambling  with  her  taste  and  ignorance,  and  she  of  course  pays 
the  cost,  or  rather  she  does  not  pay  the  awful  one  of  the 
waste  of  life  and  ambition.  If  she  did,  she  would  learn. 

Again,  with  the  rented  house.  She  who  knows  only  surface 
effects,  and  the  ordinary  demands  of  fashion,  sees  no  further 
than  the  outlines  of  the  building,  and  because  she  does  not  see, 
many  a  builder  is  encouraged  to  erect  the  most  worthless,  dan- 
gerous structures,  costing  exaggerated  amounts  to  run,  and 
often  falling  apart  from  the  use  of  poor,  unfit  material,  or 
burning  up  perhaps  because  of  the  cheap  and  dangerous  install- 
ment of  gas,  or  wiring.  Yet  the  rent  is  just  as  high  as  the 
house  built  for  the  knowing  one:  the  effect  upon  society  and 
the  business  world  is  disastrous  in  the  extreme,  and  such  com- 
mercial success  encourages  men  to  consider  a  business  contem- 
porary who  cheats  and  destroys,  who  kills  his  competitors  and 
"gets  away  with  the  goods,"  a  clever  fellow.  Such  competition 
is  villainous  in  the  extreme  and  is  made  possible  largely  through 
lack  of  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  consumer — The  Woman. 

The  answer  is  organization,  study,  knowledge,  understanding, 
action  and  co-operation  of  all  the  parts  of  society  that  are  in- 

272 


ORGANIZATION    OF    THE    CONSUMER 

volved,  that  through  the  united  and  intelligent  demand  of  the 
consumer,  business  and  government  may  be  protected  in  honest 
efforts,  and  the  economics  and  efficiency  of  each — through  con- 
tact with  the  consumer — be  put  upon  a  basis  that  is  less  nerve- 
racking  and  more  sympathetic,  honest  and  healthy. 


273 


CHAPTER    VI 

HEAT,   LIGHT,   AIR   AND   WATER 

"The  Earth — the   womb   of   the    Universe.     Light   and   Heat   the 
parents  of  Life,  generated  in  Air,  sustained  by  Water" 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  masculine  element  found  in  the 
rough,  is  a  destroyer  of  life,  while  even  the  primitive  feminine 
is  found  everywhere  to  conserve  it  to  the  best  of  her  ability. 
This  may  be  the  result  of  man's  spiritual  foresight  in  an  un- 
conscious vision  of  the  future,  which  makes  the  spending  of 
life  seem  as  nothing,  so  long  as  he  is  moving  on  in  the  light  of 
his  present  and  worldly  desires.  Woman,  on  the  other  hand, 
carries  the  burden  of  giving  birth  to  the  race,  and  nursing  its 
future  existence.  She  would  therefore  guard  this  life  waste, 
gently  mould  it  into  being,  and  see  to  its  soul's  perfection. 
And  she  best  accomplishes  her  purpose  when  she  wisely  utilizes 
the  natural  and  simple  material  at  hand,  through  understanding 
the  meaning,  feeling  the  life  purpose,  and  knowing  how  best 
to  put  it  to  use.  Woman,  of  herself,  would  move  ahead  but 
little.  All  her  time  would  be  consumed  in  the  one  effort  to 
complete  the  thing  at  hand,  but  when  man  leads  the  way,  she 
follows  with  a  devotion  that  is  wont  to  scatter  her  very  sub- 
stance. And  civilization,  on  the  one  hand,  is  that  much  poorer, 
for  her 'part  in  it  is  not  altogether  fulfilled.  She  must  ever 
return  and  build  up  anew.  On  the  other  hand,  civilization  is 
enriched  by  the  ushering  in  of  new  elements,  new  conditions,  new 
equipment,  that  must  eventually  be  the  means  of  regenerating 
and  uniting  all  sides  of  life  into  a  perfectly  organized  Whole. 

In  this  progressive  and  ever-developing  journey  through 
Nature's  garden,  let  us  pause  a  moment  and  build  a  home  to 
the  Spirit  of  Life.  Heat,  light,  air  and  water  form  this  four- 
sided  structure,  while  Heaven  is  its  roof,  and  the  Earth  its 
foundation,  and  let  us  keep  this  picture  ever  in  mind  when  we 
think  of  the  houses  built  by  man;  for  the  necessity  of  these 

274 


HEAT,    LIGHT,    AIR    AND    WATER 

elements  in  quality  and  quantity  is  but  crudely  valued  in  the 
mind  of  a  City.  All  are  Nature's  gifts,  freely  and  wonderfully 
bestowed  to  lead  man  on  to  his  best,  and  yet  we  shut  out  the 
light,  cruelly  tamper  with  the  heat,  ignorantly  misuse  the  air, 
and  willfully  pollute  the  water,  corrupting  the  earth  and  in- 
terpreting falsely  the  vision  of  Heaven.  The  object  of  a  house 
is  to  protect  the  living,  not  to  entrap  for  death,  and  it  should 
be  a  private  and  public  disgrace  to  every  citizen  of  a  community 
in  which  such  death  traps  are  found ;  for  the  intelligent  appro- 
priation of  air,  light,  heat  and  water  would  make  men  more 
nearly  men,  than  even  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic,  and 
would  establish  the  efficient  life  that  in  its  larger  feeling  needs 
must  have  such  equipment.  Perhaps  Mr.  Chambless  may  be 
able  to  solve  some  of  these  city  problems  by  the  practical  demon- 
stration of  a  real  live  Road  town.  Let  us  hope  that  he  may  be 
encouraged  to  do  so. 

Sunlight,  the  great  purifying  and  healing  force  in  Nature, 
is  indispensable  to  health  and  progress  and  should  be  encour- 
aged to  enter  freely — not  always  glaringly — into  every  corner 
where  human  beings  dwell.  In  fact  there  can  be  no  health,  or 
lasting  efficiency  where  this  daylight  is  not  allowed  to  penetrate. 
At  the  same  time  artificial  light  should  be  used  sparingly  and 
installed  with  the  utmost  caution,  for  its  cost  is  not  merely  what 
is  registered  in  the  meter,  but  a  goodly  share  of  the  amount 
given  the  doctor,  the  oculist,  and  druggist.  The  eye  is  the 
organ  for  the  reception  of  light,  but  unless  it  be  used  intelli- 
gently and  exercised  rightly,  it  pays  the  real  and  mighty  cost. 

Sometimes  it  seems  odd  that  so  little  attention  is  given  to 
the  study  of  the  correct  use  of  this  organ,  when  we  consider 
the  tragic  condition  in  blindness  and  the  vast  number  of  people 
now  on  that  road.  Probably  there  has  never  been  a  time  when 
so  many  glasses  were  needed,  or  when  the  eye  was  so  misused, 
as  the  present.  Whereas  a  few  good  habits  formed  in  youth 
would  do  much  to  insure  good  sight  in  age.  In  the  first  place, 
we  strain  the  nerves  by  looking  at  things  intently,  when  we 
should  merely  allow  them  to  look  at  us,  as  it  were,  by  relaxing 
the  muscles  to  the  reflection.  All  staring  is  dangerous  except 
for  a  momentary  exercise.  Then  again  the  muscles  need  constant 

275 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

attention,  and  where  one's  occupation  does  not  give  sufficient 
movement  to  the  right  and  left,  as  well  as  upward  and  down- 
ward, special  daily  exercises  should  be  practiced  by  moving 
the  pupil  as  far  as  possible  in  every  direction,  afterward  making 
a  circle  first  to  the  right  and  then  to  the  left.  Particularly 
helpful  is  the  practice  of  looking  upward,  raising  the  eye  as 
high  as  comfort  allows  and  resting  it  there  for  some  time.  This 
is  an  exercise  that  everyone  needs,  for  the  reason  that  our 
present  life  is  full  of  habits  that  allow  the  eye  to  droop  down- 
ward, and  unless  the  uplift  muscles  are  encouraged,  the  whole 
eye  becomes  weak  in  proportion.  The  attitude  of  prayer  has  a 
useful  meaning  here.  When  people  have  learned  to  overcome 
eye  trouble  through  exercise  and  the  right  use  of  the  eye,  and 
to  look  to  its  care  from  the  beginning,  by  using  it  as  a  mirror 
instead  of  a  tool,  much  will  have  been  done  to  reduce  the  need 
for  an  oculist,  and  to  insure  the  health  of  this  organ  in  the 
child. 

Home-makers  ought,  in  addition,  to  better  interpret  the 
.science  of  the  action  of  light  and  what  is  truly  to  be  desired 
in  the  lighting  of  a  home,  and  arrive  at  effects  that  are  not  too 
strong,  or  too  artificial  in  application,  for  there  is  great  art 
required  in  the  lighting  of  a  house,  both  for  beauty  and  for 
efficient  eye  service. 

So  it  is  in  the  heating.  It  is  as  easy  to  grow  accustomed  to 
an  overheated  house  as  to  one  overlighted;  perhaps  easier. 
And  here  again  lies  great  danger,  for  a  dry  hot  temperature 
that  tears  apart  the  framework  and  the  furniture  has  the  same 
disastrous  effect  upon  the  human  structure.  Probably  no  one 
improvement  is  more  needed  in  the  average  home  of  to-day  than 
to  have  the  coal  furnace,  or  steam  plant,  out  of  the  cellar,  and 
bring  in  the  supply  of  heat  from  a  public  station,  automatically 
adjusted  to  the  right  degree  for  health,  by  the  use  of  a  regulat- 
ing thermostat,  and  moistened  to  a  normal  percentage.  Not 
only  would  this  eliminate  a  large  part  of  the  dirt  now  endured, 
but  it  should  add  enormously  to  general  human  efficiency.  For 
even  the  most  perfect  systems  of  heating  are  made  unhealthy 
by  the  possibility  of  coal  gas,  and  the  difficulty  and  expense  of 
control,  so  that  when  they  are  spoken  of  as  comfortable  and 

276 


HEAT,    LIGHT,    AIR    AND    WATER 

satisfactory  in  feeling,  the  lack  of  moisture  and  the  danger  in 
overheating  are  serious  faults. 

These  things  pollute  the  air,  just  as  does  the  smoke  and 
dust  nuisance.  That  the  same  air  cannot  be  breathed  over 
again  by  the  human  organism  with  impunity,  and  that  windows 
should  be  kept  open  most  of  the  time,  is  fairly  well  understood 
even  by  the  uneducated,  but  the  dangers  lurking  in  the  sub- 
stances that  are  allowed  to  be  a  part  of  the  only  element  that 
is  truly  life-giving  and  regenerating,  is  sickening  to  even  con- 
sider. We  find  all  kinds  of  poisonous  gases,  chemical  particles, 
and  unpleasant  odors  which  destroy  the  joy  in  life,  cost  the 
community  fabulous  sums,  making  the  taking  in  of  a  right 
quality  of  breath  almost  an  impossibility  except  in  some  isolated 
sections  of  the  country. 

If  it  were  fully  realized  that  the  highest  and  most  direct  life- 
giving  substances  are  to  be  found  in  air  that  has  not  been  con- 
taminated, surely  more  attention  would  be  given  to  purifying 
the  atmosphere  in  which  we  try  to  "live,  breathe  and  have  our 
being."  Perfectly  pure,  fresh,  stimulating  air,  smelled  far  up 
into  the  head,  and  allowed  to  pass  freely  into,  the  entire  body, 
is  a  natural  and  rational  cure  for  almost  all  ills,  and  surely  is  a 
guarantee  against  the  beginning  of  illness.  A  clean,  clear, 
open  nasal  passage,  the  enjoyment  of  natural  and  delightful 
odors,  the  open  relaxation  of  one  nostril  and  then  the  other, 
and  the  sensation  that  the  head  is  receiving  all  it  can  utilize, 
is  a  simple  way  to  build  up  both  brain  and  nervous  system,  so 
that  the  whole  body  be  made  stronger  and  more  firm. 

The  perft  jt  man,  or  the  100  per  cent,  efficient  one,  will  never 
appear  until  the  right  kind  of  air  is  provided  for  his  welfare,  and 
he  learns  how  to  breathe  and  best  appropriate  it. 

So  far  the  subject  of  air  has  not  been  given  the  collective 
public  attention  that  has  been  devoted  to  the  subject  of  water. 
Perhaps  because  the  bad  effects  are  not  as  definite.  A  direct 
sickness,  such  as  Typhoid  Fever,  may  follow  the  drinking  of 
bad  water,  as  Ptomaine  may  result  from  poisoned  food,  but  a 
completely  diseased  system,  and  a  broken  constitution  is  the 
forfeit  paid  for  the  continued  use  of  bad  air,  making  the  one 
who  breathes  it  and  tries  to  do  his  best,  handicapped  indeed. 

277 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

Another  problem  before  the  housekeeper  is  that  of  the  modern 
water  supply.  In  the  days  of  old,  when  the  water  was  soft  and 
the  surface  rain  the  standard  of  quality,  home  operations  were 
more  readily  accomplished.  The  hard,  so-called,  "City-Water" 
that  comes  oftentimes  through  the  rocks  and  wells  that  are 
hundreds  of  feet  in  depth,  is  not  only  difficult,  but  costly  to 
handle  in  the  cleansing  of  things.  We  wonder  oftentimes 
whether  it  is  as  resisting  and  unassimilating  in  the  part  it  should 
play  in  the  purifying  of  the  inner  man.  Is  hard  water  good 
to  drink?  It  is  doubtful.  And  even  though  softening  prop- 
erties may  be  added,  are  they  not  as  unnatural  as  they  seem 
to  be  in  the  laundering  and  washing  of  articles?  However,  let 
us  make  no  decisions  here,  for  lack  of  evidence,  and  speak  only 
of  the  value  of  baths.  For  unless  the  skin  be  kept  clean,  even 
the  best  of  air  is  of  slight  avail.  The  twenty  and  more  miles 
of  tiny  open  pores,  exhaling  more  than  two  pounds  of  dead 
matter  daily,  and  inhaling  the  spirit  of  life,  must  be  ever 
ready  to  perform  their  function,  freely  and  naturally,  or  the 
body  becomes  an  inefficient  machine.  To  this  end,  public  baths, 
as  well  as  private  bath-rooms,  are  a  salvation  in  modern  life 
where  people  are  brought  together  in  an  atmosphere  too  close 
for  human  comfort.  Baths  that  make  the  skin  respond  with  a 
healthy  glow  and  activity,  have  become  not  only  a  personal 
luxury,  but  a  public  necessity  and  a  wise  and  health-giving 
undertaking  for  every  progressive  municipality. 

If  we  could  but  impress  ourselves  with  the  importance  of  the 
right  use  of  light,  heat,  air  and  water,  and  the  growing  possi- 
bilities attached  to  their  interpretation,  the  form  and  manner  of 
their  use  would  not  be  so  abused. 


278 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE  EXTERMINATION   OF  THE   FLY  AND  THE   MOSQUITO 

"Sanitation  rests  on  the  right  estimate  of  the  importance  of  little 

things" 

"The  dangerous  insects  now  known  as  the  'house  fly'  and  the 
'house  mosquito*  should  be  renamed  the  'typhoid  fly'  and 
the  'malarial  mosquito/  Their  breeding  places  would  then 
be  abolished" 

It  is  astonishing  how  many  people  accept  conditions  as  in- 
evitable, simply  because  they  have  always  existed.  How  skep- 
tical they  are  when  it  comes  to  receiving  a  new  fact,  and  how 
ignorant  oftentimes  in  their  defense  of  the  old,  though  experi- 
ence is  forever  teaching  us  this  lesson.  Interpreted  in  one 
way,  such  an  attitude  is  sane  protection  against  fraud,  yet  in 
another,  it  becomes  little  less  than  criminal  in  effect,  by  holding 
to  present  disorders  through  fear  of  playing  the  fool.  But  how 
often  we  find  the  fool  the  wisest  of  characters  inasmuch  as  he 
practices  with  the  wise  habit  of  an  ever  open  and  receptive  mind. 
It  has  taken  us  ages  to  realize  the  simple  truth  that  uncleanness 
is  one  of  the  greatest  of  earthly  menaces.  The  state  of  coming 
in  too  close  contact  with  the  cast-off  substance  of  animal,  vege- 
table and  mineral  life. 

Amidst  the  wonderful  progress  of  Twentieth  Century  civili- 
zation how  strange  it  is  that  after  generations  of  the  most  pro- 
found study  of  nature,  we  find  all  over  the  country,  even  upon 
University  Grounds,  and  the  property  of  the  richest  and  great- 
est of  citizens,  two  common  and  deadly  insects  allowed  to  breed 
by  the  billion,  under  the  worst  sort  of  conditions,  and  spread 
their  death-dealing  effect  almost  unchecked  throughout  the  civil- 
ized world.  Is  this  sane?  Is  it  safe?  Is  it  righteous?  And  is 
ignorance  sufficient  excuse?  If  not,  then  with  the  present 
knowledge  of  what  can  be  done  to  prevent  such  a  pest,  there 
should  be  a  law  adequate  and  enforced,  and  make  it  compulsory 

279 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

to  "clean  up"  the  premises,  and  if  necessary  allow  no  man  to 
own  what  he  cannot  keep  clean  and  safe,  for  his  neighbor  as  well 
as  himself.  Inspectors  should  be  on  the  alert  and  a  notice  be 
served  upon  all  guilty  tenants  and  owners,  as  well  as  a  notice 
posted  upon  the  property  stating  just  what  is  there  found  to 
exist,  and  it  should  be  made  a  disgrace  to  allow  for  a  moment, 
conditions  laden  with  danger  to  health.  In  the  meantime  the 
scattering  of  such  information  as  will  insure  public  recognition 
of  just  what  the  fly  is  known  to  do,  and  why  the  mosquito  bite 
is  to  be  avoided,  should  be  the  duty  of  all  who  understand, 
until  the  elimination  of  flies  and  mosquitoes  is  seen  to  be  a 
hygienic  necessity. 

The  story  of  the  life  of  each  has  been  published  so  often  there 
is  no  need  of  reciting  it  here,  further  than  to  remind  the  house- 
keeper— whether  public  or  private — that  the  fly  born  and  bred 
in  egesta  carries  to  our  food  the  sickening  substance  that  ends 
in  a  list  of  digestive  disorders.  From  stomach  complaint  and 
"ptomaine  poisoning"  to  intestinal  disease  and  typhoid  fever, 
and  in  fact  there  exists  strong  evidence  that  tuberculosis  and 
smallpox  are  even  carried  by  the  same  house  fly,  as  well  as 
many  other  less  known  and  unnamed  disorders ;  and  that  the 
mosquito  is  responsible  for  that  widespread  contamination  of 
the  human  blood  commonly  classed  under  the  head  of  "Malaria" 
and  extending  from  "just  a  little  temperature"  to  a  state  that 
must  mean  death.  A  poison  that  in  some  cases  seems  to  lurk 
forever  in  the  system,  ready  to  assert  itself  at  any  moment,  and 
which  reduces  one's  efficiency  to  a  tremendous  extent. 

The  lessons  from  Panama,  and  from  many  parts  of  our  own 
state  where  good  work  has  been  done,  near  and  definite  as  they 
are,  should  teach  us  conclusively  that  not  only  is  the  health  side 
of  this  subject  worthy  the  attention  of  every  intelligent  citizen, 
but  the  economic,  social  and  domestic  factors  involved  are  enor- 
mous. To  redeem  swamp  land  by  simple  ditching  which  is 
neither  expensive  nor  difficult,  the  cost  being  actually  no  more 
than  two  cents  a  linear  foot,  the  labor  cheap,  and  the  fact  that 
when  it  is  done,  it  is  done  once  and  for  all — save  the  slight  re- 
pair work  that  may  be  needed  from  time  to  time — is  well  worth 
the  attention  of  the  alert  business  mind.  And  think  of  the 

280 


EXTERMINATION    OF    THE    FLY    AND    MOSQUITO 

comfort  that  would  result  to  the  country.  Besides  the  very 
tangible  truth  that  people  do  not  like  to  live  in  a  community 
where  they  are  made  miserable ;  as  mosquitoes  do  often  make  it 
impossible  to  exist  with  any  sense  of  pleasure.  They  swarm 
out  in  the  most  agreeable  part  of  the  Summer  day,  when  one 
is  trying  to  rest  after  hours  of  occupation,  and  so  destroy  the 
peace  of  the  atmosphere  as  to  be  a  torment  to  both  soul  and 
body.  To  know  that  the  majority  are  raised  within  a  stone's 
throw  of  one's  abiding  place,  and  only  in  stagnant  water,  should 
make  the  good  housekeeper  ashamed  to  the  core,  and  start  her 
on  a  tour  of  investigation  to  find  from  whence  comes  this  curse 
of  the  fair  Summer.  And  she  will  probably  find  the  greater 
part  of  the  swarm  raised  upon  her  own  premises  in  everything 
and  anything  that  holds  water  for  ten  days,  or  more.  From  the 
thimbleful  left  by  accident  in  the  bottom  of  a  flower  vase,  to 
the  ornamental  fountain  or  pool  in  the  garden.  From  the  bend 
in  the  dented,  or  broken  gutter  on  the  roof,  to  the  rain  barrel 
or  catch-basin,  the  cesspool,  or  the  old  well.  Anywhere — the 
places  are  without  number — that  watery  liquid  is  allowed  to 
stand. 

While  the  Boards  of  Health  have  it  in  their  power  to  take 
the  whole  subject  in  hand,  they  are  helpless  unless  the  public 
demand  is  backing  them  by  the  way. 

Looked  at  from  a  progressive  standpoint,  there  probably 
is  no  crusade  that  would  so  effectively  and  thoroughly  clean 
up  an  entire  town,  as  one  initiated  against  flies  and  mosquitoes. 
It  must  needs  penetrate  into  every  dark  corner  and  alley,  and 
every  back  yard  and  cellar.  It  would  drain  the  old  puddles 
and  ponds,  and  remove  the  old  bottles  and  cans.  All  the  gar- 
bage and  manure  piles  would  be  done  away  with,  and  the  whole 
town  would  be  taught  how  to  keep  itself  clean  by  finding  where 
the  failures  occurred. 

The  fact  that  there  is  no  necessity  for  the  breeding  of  mos- 
quitoes in  every  civilized  locality,  is  easy  to  understand  and 
illustrate  when  the  whole  district  is  efficiently  attacked,  as  it 
were,  with  a  sanitary  fine-tooth  comb  for  this  purpose. 

Their  effect  upon  children  and  animals  is  cruel  in  the  extreme 
for  a  sympathetic  age  to  countenance.  And  outdoor  life — 

281 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

which  ought  to  be  the  healthiest  and  happiest  part  of  country- 
living — in  a  vast  number  of  places  cannot  be  indulged  in  at  all. 
Fortunately  the  Mosquito  Commissions  of  New  Jersey  are 
gradually  being  instated.  When  twenty-one  Counties  become 
active  this  long-endured  pest  will  soon  be  an  evil  of  the  past  and 
the  fly,  the  dirty  fly,  must  follow,  thereby  proving  our  little 
State  the  most  sanitary  on  the  map. 

Any  such  unclean  surroundings  are  a  home  menace;  a  pre- 
venter of  the  right  sort  of  progress,  with  no  excuse  for  being, 
save  laziness  and  ignorance.  Does  it  not  behoove  the  house- 
keepers then,  to  do  their  part  in  the  elimination  of  such  domestic 
dangers,  knowing  the  cost  is  slight  and  the  returns  abundant? 
Is  not  co-operation  and  education  the  way  to  keep  a  town 
clean,  organized  and  in  running  order?  For  the  carelessness 
of  one  is  the  undoing  of  the  many.  No  town  can  be  healthy 
where  flies  and  mosquitoes  are  abundant.  Neither  can  a  com- 
munity progress  unto  the  highest  stage  of  beauty,  or  social 
importance,  that  is  not  clean  in  all  its  parts. 


282 


CHAPTER    VIII 

A  HOME   MUNICIPAL   LABORATORY 

"For  it  is  true  in  housekeeping,  as  it  is  in  business  enterprises,  that 
systematic  study  is  needed  to  furnish  the  broad  foundation  upon 
which  improvements  in  household  operations  should  be  based" 

The  answer  to  almost  every  problem  in  life,  we  find  at  length 
to  be  education,  but  the  question  that  arises  is,  what  should  be 
meant  by  this  word? 

A  teacher  is  truly  educating  when  he  encourages  each  pupil 
into  individual  independence,  through  establishing  a  self-con- 
tained and  progressive  attitude  of  mind,  that  of  itself  develops 
free  and  constructive  thought  and  action.  In  other  words, 
when  he  shows  the  child  how  to  control  and  guide  his  own  per- 
sonal ship,  or  ego,  through  the  deep  waters  of  life,  and  is 
not  merely  helping  him  to  load  a  cargo  unrelated  to  his  future 
use  or  skill. 

The  physician  is  performing  his  highest  duty  when  he  instructs 
his  patient  how  to  heal  himself,  and  gives  what  information  he 
can  to  further  this  end. 

The  business  man  who  is  helping  other  people  along,  at  the 
same  time  that  he  is  helping  himself,  is  preparing  a  greater 
market  for  his  own  operations  than  the  one  who  grabs  all  he 
can,  thinking  only  of  himself.  Just  as  the  Society  with  a  high 
sense  of  responsibility,  develops  itself  in  all  parts,  and  the 
knowledge  that  is  put  into  action  and  made  to  relate  itself  to 
all  movement,  enlarging  thereby  the  personal  power  and  evolv- 
ing better  conditions,  is  the  only  real  knowledge  worth  while. 

The  value  of  beauty  is  in  educating  the  feelings  to  a  finer 
form  of  expression  and  thus  inspiring  each  one  to  create,  after 
his  own  best  kind.  The  artist,  therefore,  who  endeavors  to 
make  his  pupils  independent  and  original,  training  them  only  in 
principle,  is  doing  his  very  most.  Just  so  the  priest,  who  in- 
stead of  preaching  and  scolding,  shows  his  followers  how  to  live 

283 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

the  God-like  life,  each  in  his  own  way,  explains  the  action  of 
spiritual  and  psychic  law  and  teaches  the  need  of  religion  in 
commonplace  things — that  the  people  may  be  happier  and 
more  whole  in  their  every  effort — is  educating  his  flock  in  the 
truest  sense  of  the  term. 

And  the  City  which  includes  all  these  things,  would  further 
its  own  interest  and  that  of  every  inhabitant,  if  it  would  inter- 
pret its  government  in  terms  of  education  instead  of  in  terms 
of  law.  If  it  would  spend  its  time  and  strength  in  showing  the 
citizens  and  not  so  much  in  declaring,  and  its  money  in  instruct- 
ing them  how  to  live,  instead  of  trying  to  enforce  civic  cures. 
The  home,  as  the  student  of  the  Government,  and  the  Govern- 
ment as  the  natural  educational  civic  center, — ever  ready  to  help 
even  the  least  of  the  citizens  into  a  better  form  of  himself — is, 
we  believe  the  ideal  solution  of  the  much  discussed  problem — 
Education.  Just  as  the  Federal  Government  has  through  its 
Department  of  Agriculture,  started  a  nation-wide  work  to  teach 
the  people  useful  and  practical  things,  so  we  would  have  each 
city  have  a  central  station  of  its  own,  and  where  the  people 
could  not  come  to  it,  the  results  could  go  to  the  people. 

It  is  widely  acknowledged  that  disease,  poverty,  and  crime 
are  the  result  of  ignorance,  and  that  evil  generally — unless  it 
be  the  natural  happenings  of  the  Seasons — is  absorbed  not  by 
piety,  but  by  righteousness,  and  furthermore  it  may  yet  be  seen- 
that  even  the  periodical  disturbances  of  the  elements  are  largely 
due  to  man's  continual  stupidity.  Certain  it  is  that  he  can 
overcome  much  even  here,  by  proper  education  and  habit. 

But  to  return  to  the  home  and  its  particular  and  immediate 
needs  in  its  progress  for  itself  and  for  the  City. 

The  would-be  efficient  housekeeper  is  continually  confronted 
with  difficulties  in  the  what,  why,  and  how,  of  her  domestic 
world.  Her  business  of  home-making  is  much  the  same  as  the 
business  of  city-making,  and  is  no  small  work  to  attempt.  She 
must  be  a  teacher,  an  artist,  a  priest,  a  physician,  a  business- 
manager  and  a  society  leader,  as  well  as  a  philosopher  and  a 
scientist.  All  these  together,  with  her  natural  aptitude,  make 
her  the  mother,  the  food  carrier,  and  the  inspiring  factor  of  the 
race. 

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A    HOME    MUNICIPAL    LABORATORY 

To  efficiently  perform  such  a  set  of  functions,  even  in  the 
simplest  of  ways,  requires  a  source  of  supply,  and  where  should 
she  turn  for  this,  if  not  to  the  government  of  her  land?  For  it 
is  well-nigh  impossible  for  her  to  safely  engineer  her  business 
unless  she  can  guarantee  the  result,  through  knowledge  of 
materials  needed.  The  business  of  the  town  is  to  supply  her 
with  stuff;  the  quality  of  which  is  often  unknown.  Her  com- 
mercial faith  has  been  so  abused,  she  no  longer  has  reason  to 
believe  in  the  declarations  of  any  one  producer,  manufacturer, 
or  dealer,  whether  written,  spoken,  or  supposed.  This  of  course 
is  quite  unwise,  and  makes  for  civic  disorder,  as  she  has  no  way 
of  telling  the  true  from  the  false,  even  though  she  knows  much 
that  is  right  still  exists. 

There  should,  therefore,  be  established  a  testing  place  for 
foods,  clothing  and  household  equipment  generally,  that  the 
honest,  efficient  business  man  be  encouraged  to  higher  stand- 
ards, and  the  dishonest  fake  kept  from  being  a  public  menace. 
The  would-be-honest  dealer  is  unjustly  handicapped,  and  often- 
times put  to  death  commercially,  through  ignorance  on  the  part 
of  the  consumer.  This  is  neither  her  fault,  nor  his,  but  an 
unfortunate  and  diseased  civic  situation  that  only  a  govern- 
ment of  all  the  people,  for  all  the  people,  by  all  the  people  can 
overcome. 

Education  should  not  stop  at  the  High  School,  nor  at  the 
end  of  any  particular  course,  but  these  splendid  buildings  should 
be  ever  open  for  the  instructive  use  of  all  the  citizens,  all  the 
time.  A  department  of  the  City  that  consumes  so  large  a  part 
of  the  tax  upon  the  people,  should  be  equipped  and  ever  ready 
for  the  use  of  all  the  community,  including  a  sort  of  consulta- 
tion place  for  grown-ups  in  how  to  spend  and  how  to  live  for 
health  and  purse  protection,  a  room  for  political  meetings,  and 
a  hall  for  pleasure  gatherings. 

In  establishing  the  Experiment  Station,  our  ideal  was  to 
help  in  the  standardizing  of  foods,  household  appliances  and 
furnishings ;  to  suggest  a  system  of  home  operation,  and  a 
method  of  progressive  management,  in  order  to  face  the  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  the  present  housekeeper,  who  is  trying  to 
meet  modern  demands  with  a  proper  balance  between  work  and 

285 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

rest,  so  as  to  prevent  fatigue  and  depletion.  This  meant  at- 
tacking the  subject  from  many  sides,  for  there  is  no  one  easy 
and  simple  solution.  Our  plan  was  to  instruct — in  so  far  as 
we  were  able — the  home-maker  in  the  what,  why  and  how  of 
her  profession,  through  relating  her  work  in  the  public  mind 
with  the  larger  idea  of  government,  to  the  end  that  she  might 
carry  out  her  feminine  and  patriotic  mission,  by  turning  the 
public  attention  to  her  need  of  more  accurate  civic  knowledge. 
We  gathered  together  much  information  and  used  it  in  testing, 
experimenting,  telling  and  showing  as  our  ways  and  means 
would  allow.  Whenever  we  found  anything  up  to  standard 
and  worthy  of  close  consideration,  we  frankly  published  its 
maker  and  the  name  and  address  of  the  dealer,  believing  that 
the  return  for  one's  money  is  more  desirable  than  any  consider- 
ation of  personal  suspicion.  Our  success  with  the  limited  means 
available,  was  so  far-reaching  that  we  conclude  from  this  prac- 
tical experience  something  like  the  Experiment  Station  on  a 
larger  scale,  should  be  a  part  of  every  municipality,  conducted 
with  as  little  red  tape  as  possible,  and  furnishing  as  much 
reliable  information  as  may  be  attained  through  an  organized 
chain  of  such  Bureaus.  Each  City  should  appoint  women— 
of  course — to  have  part  in  the  upkeep,  and  perhaps  control 
such  a  laboratory,  but  men  should  design  and  conduct  it  and 
make  it  an  educational  function  of  Government,  of  use  to  all  the 
people. 


286 


CHAPTER    IX 

MORAL     STANDARDS 

"Our  antagonistic  social  system  is  the  cause  of  immorality" 

In  setting  up  a  system  of  "thou  shalt  nots,"  Civilization  has 
been  the  cause  of  misleading  the  mind  from  where  it  should 
focus,  and  concentrating  it  upon  what  it  ought  not  to  entertain. 
To  be  sure  the  Bible  gives  most  complete  and  careful  instruc- 
tions as  to  how  one  should  act  upon  all  occasions,  but  the  com- 
mandments, together  with  the  lessons  of  vengeance,  jealousy  and 
wrath,  the  vision  of  a  personal  God  casting  down  fire  and  fury 
upon  all  who  do  not  "Bow  down  to  Him  and  worship  Him,"  are 
interpretations  that  have  led  the  world  of  Christendom  astray 
and  influenced  men  to  do  and  be  what  they  conceived  was  like 
unto  this  supremely  powerful  Being,  for  how  could  they  think, 
or  dream,  to  become  more  holy  than  their  Maker? 

Again,  the  interpretation  of  morality  in  the  light  of  sexuality 
and  social  custom,  has  added  to  the  bewilderment  of  the  mind, 
and  put  a  serious  pressure  upon  the  normal  action  of  creative 
independence.  Because  a  certain  method  is  right  in  one  age 
and  one  place,  is  no  guarantee  that  it  will  always  be  right.  Any 
more  than  to  suppose  the  thing  beautiful  at  one  time  will,  under 
all  conditions  be  beautiful.  It  is  a  matter  of  understanding 
and  of  growth ;  of  development  and  of  motive. 

On  the  other  hand,  spiritual  law,  like  physical  law,  is  ever 
operating  in  the  same  way,  under  the  same  necessity  and  through 
the  same  principles.  Our  business  as  moral  beings,  then,  is  to 
understand  this  law  and  apply  these  principles.  Not  to  estab- 
lish rules  and  creeds  as  arbitrary  enforcements,  that  make  even 
the  child  who  is  told  to  obey,  conscious  of  the  inconsistency 
and  unreasonableness  of  the  command.  "Never  tell  a  lie,"  says 
the  mother,  and  in  the  next  breath :  "Tell  Mrs.  Smith  I  am  not 
at  home."  "You  must  not  hit  your  brother,"  says  the  father, 
and  turning  to  his  wife  he  replies :  "I'll  knock  that  man  down 

287 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

if  he  crosses  my  path  again."  The  child  mind  is  confused, 
and  he  wishes  he  were  grown  up  and  could  do  as  he  pleases, 
like  his  parents.  The  basis  of  the  method  is  at  fault,  and  an 
immoral,  or  unmoral  environment  results,  producing  for  society 
too  large  a  percentage  of  both  the  willfully  evil,  and  what 
might  be  called  the  negatively  good,  and  far  too  small  a  class 
who  act  from  independent  conviction  and  appreciation  of  the 
real  social  law. 

The  beginning  of  civilization,  whether  in  the  child  or  the  race, 
is  when  there  has  been  developed  sufficient  ability  to  evolve 
from  the  experience  of  the  past  a  mode  of  action  effective  for  the 
present.  The  baby  that  burns  itself  a  few  times,  knows  that  it 
should  keep  away  from  fire.  And  the  race  that  suffers  in 
bondage  knows  that  man's  authority  is  not  the  highest. 

Ideals  are  the  summing  up  of  the  experience  of  the  past, 
formulating  it  into  law,  and  testing  these  values  in  the  present, 
for  the  future.  If  this  age  fails  to  sum  up  and  put  into  right 
relationship  the  ideals  for  this  age,  the  next  age  will  have  to  do 
the  work  that  should  have  been  done  in  this,  thereby  neither 
making  the  most  of  its  allotted  talent. 

Commandments  and  creeds,  domination  and  negative  good- 
ness, may  make  for  immediate  control,  or  perhaps  contentment, 
and  an  easier  system  of  management,  but  they  do  not — in  the 
experience  of  the  past — give  either  permanent  happiness,  a 
developing  productiveness,  or  a  progressive  people,  but  rather 
a  dead  age  of  discontent,  and  suppression. 

The  oyster  moves,  lifts  itself  up,  and  knows  certain  things 
are  tasteful  and  distasteful,  just  as  the  animal  spends  its  time 
in  seeking  pleasure  and  avoiding  pain ;  but  to  be  human,  means 
a  consciousness  of  self-direction,  the  making  or  creating  from 
such  experience  something  worth-while,  according  to  one's  talent 
and  knowledge,  for  Creation  is  discovery.  The  putting  of 
things  in  new  relationship,  and  the  constant  change  in  rela- 
tionship we  term  progress.  The  secret  of  all  human  pleasure 
and  power  is  in  working  towards  more  and  more  harmonious 
relationship ;  keeping  alive  the  spirit  of  youth,  by  creating  fresh 
ideals  and  thus  moulding  the  life  of  this  and  of  future  genera- 
tions. 

288 


MORAL    STANDARDS 

Within  such  a  consciousness  of  growth  and  responsibility,  we 
would  evolve  a  system  of  morals  more  fitted  to  what  is  called 
Freedom,  or  liberty  of  action,  for  as  man  is  free  to  do,  or  not  to 
do,  within  a  given  limit,  he  will  grow,  or  not  grow,  in  proportion 
to  his  use  of  this  responsibility.  Two  factors  enter  here,  that 
we  must  join  together  at  the  offset.  Masculine  intelligence  and 
feminine  sympathy.  While  both  are  capable  of  including  the 
whole,  neither  can  properly  produce  by  itself.  Intelligence 
gives  us  knowledge  of  co-operative  strength,  but  sympathy  co- 
ordinates the  members.  Intelligence  has  proved  "No  man 
liveth  unto  himself  alone,"  and  that  each  is  his  brother's  keeper. 
Sympathy  shows  him  how  to  live  with  others,  and  the  way  to 
keep  his  brother,  and  so  a  spiritual  law  is  deduced  that  reads 
onward  and  upward,  not  alone,  but  in  mass,  for.  only  that  which 
is  given  in  the  right  spirit  can  profit  a  man.  This  we  know 
must  be  applied,  and  perhaps  a  new  theory,  or  vision  of  selfish- 
ness will  result,  for  it  is  well  understood  that  all  moral  action 
rests  really  upon  the  thought  and  feeling  of  self.  To  acquire 
in  order  to  give,  is  vastly  different  from  giving  in  order  to 
acquire.  Each  involves  self  to  a  dangerous  degree;  therefore, 
we  would  as  nearly  as  possible  eliminate  self,  for  self's  sake,  and 
live  for  Ideals,  contributing  our  substance  to  the  building  and 
use  of  these,  and  to  the  Cause  in  which  one  chooses  to  enlist. 
For  while  every  man  has  a  talent,  and  a  purpose  all  his  own,  his 
realization  of  it  depends  upon  his  devotion  not  to  himself,  but  to 
the  latent  ability  within  him;  his  power  to  overcome,  and  his 
willingness  to  die,  if  need  be,  that  good  may  live.  Moral  stand- 
ards thus  become  an  individual  decision,  not  simply  a  custom  as 
is  so  often  the  case.  The  motive  makes  the  act,  and  the  act 
explains  the  status.  Education  for  intelligent  motive  is  there- 
fore the  answer,  and  righteousness  the  key  to  achievement.  Co- 
operation is  the  system.  Co-ordination  the  way.  Thus  public 
and  private  morals  are  a  matter  of  each  one's  own  conviction 
prompted  by  a  controlled,  but  sympathetic  emotion,  and  not  by 
habit,  convention,  or  tradition;  a  personal,  progressive  and 
ideal  attitude  toward  every  situation;  the  moving  on  of  self  in 
higher  and  better  relationship. 

Applying  this  to  the  home,  we  find  it  has  a  practical  outcome. 

289 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

Everyone  through  sympathetic  understanding,  helps  everyone 
else  to  realize  a  common  interest,  that  all  may  profit  thereby. 

The  policy  adopted  at  the  Experiment  Station  was  that  of 
helping  each  to  want  to  do  his  part  in  the  common  economic 
endeavor.  It  was  considered  immoral  to  leave  a  room,  for  in- 
stance, any  the  worse  for  having  entered  it,  or  to  act  in  a 
way  to  interfere  with  the  progress  of  another.  Law,  as  the 
basis  of  freedom,  gives  a  chance  for  all  human  expression, — 
psychic  and  social  law.  Construction  is  ever  the  moral  aim. 
Destruction  is  immoral,  except  for  the  express  purpose  of  bet- 
terment. A  high  motive,  a  mutual  understanding,  and  an  active 
and  co-operative  desire  to  realize  it,  is  the  moral  flag  of  right- 
eousness, around  which  the  family  can  "rally,"  carried  to  the 
extent  of  endeavoring  to  leave  each  as  well  off,  or  better,  for 
coming  together.  The  what,  why,  and  how  of  every  question 
interpreted  in  terms  of  a  living,  constructive  morality,  prove 
j  again  the  Efficiency  System,  a  practical  working  method  of 
j  realizing  even  personal  goodness.  For  one  is  soon  convinced 
that  to  work  to  produce  an  ideal,  through  independent  and 
original  action,  is  the  most  direct  road  to  happiness.  House- 
work is  one  of  the  ways  of  making  such  action  possible,  and 
giving  in  return  just  enough  discipline  to  be  worth  the  effort. 
The  home  is  the  practice  ground  for  happiness  and  more  efficient 
living,  and  there  is  nothing  required  in  the  modern  house  that 
should  not  add  to  this  standard.  Hospitality  and  sociability 
even  have  their  moral  form  of  expression.  Why  should  a 
hostess  provide  what  she  knows  is  not  good  for  her  guests,  even 
though  their  appetite  and  habit  may  demand  the  thing  in  ques- 
tion? Again,  in  the  social  world  there  seems  to  be  little  or  no 
conscience  about  how  one's  time  or  state  of  mind  shall  be  inter- 
fered with.  Confusion  and  waste  run  rampant  here  and  still 
no  one  seems  to  question  the  moral  significance.  Perhaps  an 
average  of  one-third  of  a  life  is  frittered  away  by  others,  with 
no  sense  of  value,  or  Tightness.  Stilted  and  unprofitable  meet- 
ings that  help  to  make  of  us  social  victims.  Children  in  this 
way  are  wiser  than  grown-ups.  They  frankly  express  their 
wishes,  and  go  and  come  as  they  choose.  "I  don't  like  your 
game.  I  want  to  go  home,"  is  a  frequent  childish  excuse  for 

290 


MORAL    STANDARDS 

breaking  away  from  another.  With  just  a  little  direction, 
they  could  be  made  to  understand  the  morals  of  such  action, 
and  they  are  far  more  just  than  their  elders,  in  that  they  sus- 
pend rather  than  pass  judgment  too  quickly  upon  another. 

It  is  said  from  an  experienced  standpoint  that  it  is  impossible 
to  rightly  judge,  because  the  facts  are  never  all  in.  Whether 
children  sense  this  truth,  we  cannot  tell,  but  certain  it  is  they 
seem  to  take  more  real  pleasure  in  moral  action  than  their 
parents,  and  are  frequently  more  consistent.  Moral  education 
and  moral  practice  have  always  been  centered  in  the  home,  with 
a  certain  help  from  the  church,  but  the  church  no  longer  holds 
its  former  authority,  and  the  home  has  too  often  gone  adrift  in 
its  mission.  Let  us  not  be  disturbed  by  this,  however,  but  turn 
our  thought  to  the  community  and  the  Nation,  encouraging 
individual  moral  action  in  terms  of  universal  fellowship  through 
the  method  of  a  modern  practical  philosophy.  For  the  "Square 
Deal"  of  Efficiency  is  to  "live  and  let  live  in  the  doing,"  and  the 
true  human  spirit  of  building  one's  life  is  abroad  and  active  in 
the  land. 

To  purposely  live  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  other  people's  labor, 
is  surely  a  moral  sin.  The  human  parasite  and  the  snob  are 
despicable  members  of  society.  To  feed  upon  another  and  give 
nothing  in  return  is  truly  a  beastly  state  of  being,  where  neither 
intelligence  nor  sympathy  have  any  place  other  than  low-form 
instinct. 

Again,  is  it  not  immoral  to  deliberately  waste  one's  time, 
talent,  or  substance?  Should  these  not  all  be  accounted  for  in 
the  Great  Book  that  promises  freedom  ?  Where  obedience,  and 
discipline  are  a  matter  of  law,  and  not  a  matter  of  forcement. 

The  moral  life  and  the  moral  law,  we  know  are  essential 
factors,  and  moral  practice  has  been  the  salvation  of  men 
throughout  all  the  ages.  The  danger  is  with  the  passive  ac- 
ceptance of  a  stupid  and  dead  system  of  morality  that  tries  to 
dictate  just  what  one  shall  do,  and  when  he  shall  do  it;  by  an 
ancient  rule  of  thumb  and  a  vision  as  wide  as  a  string,  instead 
of  helping  each  member  of  society  to  stand  on  his  own  feet,  think 
with  his  own  head,  and  act  by  virtue  of  knowing  the  law  that 
guides  in  control  of  emotion. 

291 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC   ENGINEERING 

The  driving  force  should  be  simply  a  richer  Life,  and  a  higher 
Life.  As  human  beings  there  is  little  or  no  difference  between 
us.  The  distinguishing  characteristics  are  partial.  We  are 
outraged  at  a  manner  or  a  form,  when  if  we  would  give  our 
entire  and  sympathetic  attention,  the  life  back  of  these  uncouth 
gestures,  would  be  singularly  warmed  into  a  new  and  better 
kind  of  expression.  How  moral  it  would  be  to  cultivate  a  habit 
of  bestowing  one's  undivided  attention  upon  each  member  of 
society  one  meets,  giving  one's  best,  even  if  it  be  but  a  fraction 
of  a  moment.  For  the  thoughts  one  has  of  another,  play  upon 
each,  subtly  producing  after  their  kind.  The  mood  in  which 
are  performed  our  most  trivial  acts  is  the  moulder  of  the  char- 
acter of  self  and  all  one  touches. 

Thus  the  community  forces  may  be  made  constructive,  de- 
veloping in  happiness  for  each,  or  destructive,  ending  in 
calamity,  depending  upon  the  contribution  of  the  individual  to 
the  general  or  larger  moral  atmosphere. 


292 


CHAPTER    X 

LOVE  AND   HOME 

"Love  is  the  life  of  man" 

There  are  those  who  would  reduce  the  entire  Efficiency  Sys- 
tem and  all  of  its  principles,  into  the  one  quality  called  Com- 
mon-Sense. If  you  have  this,  you  have  it,  say  they;  if  you 
haven't,  you  haven't,  and  that's  all  there  is  about  it.  Just  as 
there  are  those  who  say  the  whole  subject  of  the  home  and 
the  family,  the  children  and  society,  is  a  matter  of  simple  Love. 
If  love  is  present,  all  is  well.  If  there  be  little,  or  no  love,  the 
situation  is  hopeless. 

There  is  of  course  truth  in  these  statements,  for  in  the  last 
analysis  all  success  depends  upon  the  individual  passion  that  is 
back  of  every  effort,  and  the  simple  quality  of  knowing  how. 
These,  however,  are  no  more  to  be  considered  mere  gifts  from 
Heaven  showered  only  upon  the  elect  and  withheld  from  the 
multitude,  than  that  Heaven  itself  is  designed  for  the  few  who 
are  labeled  at  birth,  and  Hell  for  the  others.  Some  kind  of  a 
personal  effort  must  be  made  in  order  to  arrive  at  any  state 
of  well-being,  and  the  higher  the  state,  the  more  difficult  the 
road.  While  it  is  easy  to  agree  with  those  who  say  these  great 
virtues  are  the  simple  essential  conditions,  it  is  incomprehensible 
to  think  they  cannot  be  arrived  at  through  a  right  kind  of 
education  and  discipline. 

What  is  common-sense,  except  the  faculty  of  being  able  to 
assemble  all  the  known  sides  of  a  given  subject  and  act  in  ac- 
cordance with  one's  innate  estimate  of  what  is  practical?  While 
the  tendency  for  self-preservation  is  strong  and  often  expresses 
itself  in  quick  decisions  that  seem  to  result  from  little  or  no 
preparation,  no  man  can  tell  what  has  been  the  connection  be- 
tween another  and  his  environment ;  his  observation,  attention, 
comparative  quality,  and  memory  may  have  been  exercised 
abundantly  throughout  his  entire  life,  encouraging  a  "common- 

293 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

sense"  of  high  order.  On  the  other  hand,  he  may  have  had 
little  or  no  opportunity  for  practice,  and  so  his  common-sense 
proves  of  a  common  order  indeed.  The  human  quality  of  sum- 
ming up  all  the  known  facts  and  using  the  result  in  reasonable 
and  effective  action,  is  surely  as  capable  of  direct  education 
through  systematic  training  as  any  other  power  of  human  ex- 
pression; and  does  not  progress  itself  depend  upon  how  this 
training  is  brought  about?  The  kind  of  system  that  shall 
provide  the  facts  ?  And  the  manner  of  their  interpretation  ? 

So  with  love.  We  find  people  who  are  constituted  in  such 
a  way  as  to  make  them  lovable,  through  a  kind  of  sympathetic 
understanding,  and  this  becomes  their  strongest  factor  in  suc- 
cess. But  that  does  not  deny  that  love  in  others  cannot  be 
elevated,  developed,  purified,  and  made  more  productive  through 
constant  effort  in  the  systematic  training  of  emotion  and  appre- 
ciation. The  latter  meaning  that  power  of  conscious  direction 
of  one's  will  toward  those  things  that  are  worthy  and  lovely. 
Appreciation  grows  with  contact,  and  here  is  the  great  value  in 
environment,  but  as  Nature  adapts  her  creatures  to  their  sur- 
roundings through  a  gradual  process  of  relationship,  so  we 
believe  lasting  good  results  from  a  progressive  process  in  the 
betterment  of  things  as  they  are,  and  not  in  sudden  and  artificial 
leaps  that  tend  to  educate  beyond  one's  power  of  "common- 
sense"  adaptability.  To  cultivate  from  the  outside  only,  or  to 
"refine"  at  the  expense  of  substance,  is  a  dangerous  application 
of  the  better  environment  method.  Yet  in  everyone  there  lurks 
a  power  of  appreciation  and  a  love  for  something.  It  may  be 
anything  from  candy  to  religion,  but  a  passion  for  the  thing 
that  one  understands,  or  desires,  is  to  be  found  in  greater,  or 
lesser  degree  in  each  human  soul.  To  increase  the  kind  of 
appreciation  that  exists,  and  guide  into  a  higher  form  of 
expression  this  individual  passion,  is  the  purpose  of  a  systematic 
love-training,  which,  unless  it  be  centered  in  personal  interest,  will 
not  properly  accomplish  its  object.  Everyone  knows  how  much 
easier  it  is  to  apply  one's  self  to  the  thing  in  which  one  is  inter- 
ested, and  how  extremely  difficult  it  is  to  force  the  attention 
where  there  is  no  appreciation.  History  and  experience  teem  with 
proofs  of  the  enormous  capacity  of  men  and  women  under 

294- 


LOVE    AND    HOME 

the  passion  of  love.  Family  love,  love  of  each  other,  love  of 
home,  of  friend,  of  humanity,  of  occupation,  of  one's  self,  of 
possessions,  of  Nature,  and  of  God,  has,  we  know,  been  the  real 
motive  power  of  the  world,  and  while  back  of  it  is  that  great 
reality, — the  passion  for  the  expression  of  self — it  must  come 
through  knowledge  of  and  disinterested  love  of  self  and  the 
activity  of  one's  soul  in  a  progressive  devotion  to  the  thing 
liked  best. 

There  will  come  a  day  when,  if  the  individual  cannot  decide 
for  himself  the  vocation  for  which  he  is  most  ably  fitted,  we 
believe  the  State  will  help  in  placing  him  where  the  result  will 
be  efficiency.  For  each  can  do  something  worth  while  and 
Constructive,  if  he  could  in  the  beginning  but  unite  his  passion 
with  his  ability. 

It  is  surprising  how  many  people  there  are  who  seem  to 
want  most  to  do  the  thing  for  which  they  are  apparently 
unadapted.  Keener  pleasure  seems  to  be  found  in  accomplish- 
ing those  things  that  are  somewhat  difficult  for  one.  At  the 
same  time,  these  very  people  are  capable  of  an  individual  point 
of  view  of  use  in  all  endeavor,  and  equipped  with  some  com- 
mon class-tendency.  For  instance :  the  one  who  has  an  artistic 
bent,  and  yet  chooses  a  commercial  routine,  is  apt  to  make  a 
greater  success,  if  he  impresses  his  business  with  this  art- 
tendency.  So  the  one  who  would  love  to  teach,  and  finds  it 
necessary  to  lay  bricks  instead,  may  search  for  facts  by  the  way 
and  instruct  his  fellow-workmen  in  such  art.  For,  as  everything 
is  in  each  thing,  and  each  in  everything,  it  becomes  possible  to 
love  the  thing  you  must  do,  by  including  within  it  the  thing  you 
would  love  to  do.  Genius  itself  is  but  the  capacity  for  applica- 
tion, and  the  faculty  of  never  forgetting  a  truth.  But  some  one 
will  say :  how  can  you  love  that  which  is  distinctly  disagreeable  ? 
The  writer  knows  no  better  way  than  to  accept  it,  if  need  be, 
incorporate  it  into  one's  life,  and  devote  one's  self  to  under- 
standing it,  with  a  vision  ever  fixed  on  the  thing  you  would  have. 
When  the  discipline  of  the  unpleasant  has  been  acquired,  it 
passes  on  and  leaves  one,  just  as  the  mischievous  child  no  longer 
teases  his  young  brother  when  the  latter  refuses  to  be  troubled. 
As  with  vocation,  so  with  one's  companions.  Through  the 

295 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

development  of  insight  and  understanding,  almost  anyone  be- 
comes interesting,  and  appreciation  and  devotion  result,  or,  the 
companion  passes  out  of  one's  life,  and  others  take  the  place; 
so  also  do  the  loved  ones,  but  it  is  far  "better  to  have  loved 
and  lost,  than  never  to  have  loved  at  all."  It  is  the  love  that 
has  been  created  that  counts,  even  when  it  makes  one  suffer ;  not 
the  condition. 

Again,  in  the  family  it  is  the  form  of  love  that  is  developed, 
that  really  makes  the  home.  No  equipment  and  no  system,  no 
talent  and  no  amount  of  wealth,  are  worth  having,  where  there 
is  no  devotion  to  the  home  itself,  and  the  atmosphere  it  breathes. 
Understanding  and  insight  are  the  same  keys  found  to  unlock 
the  door  here,  as  elsewhere.  If  we  would  have  a  child  speak 
correctly,  we  place  him  at  an  early  age  where  the  language  and 
diction  are  faultless,  and  at  the  same  time  instruct  him  in  the 
form  and  manner  to  be  acquired.  So  with  Art ;  the  environment 
as  well  as  the  child  should  be  attended  to,  and  the  child  be 
trained  through  seeing  good  things  about  him,  being  instructed 
as  to  what  makes  them  good,  and  developing  his  own  opinion 
through  his  own  impressions.  Watching  another  work,  study- 
ing the  principles  and  applying  them  in  one's  own  effort,  gives 
better  understanding  and  arouses  a  greater  interest  than  merely 
a  distant  contact  through  rules  alone,  which  is  a  purely  in- 
tellectual knowledge. 

Housework,  we  know,  becomes  much  more  fascinating  when 
interpreted  in  terms  of  one's  temperament  and  entered  into 
with  love  in  the  doing.  The  one  who  is  able  to  draw  upon  Self 
to  make  the  imperfect  environment  more  perfect,  who  loves  to 
devise  ways  and  means  of  conquering  the  situation,  is  develop- 
ing a  love  that  can  be  increased  and  guided  by  one's  own  con- 
sciousness, through  applying  one's  self  properly  and  keeping  in 
mind  a  clear  vision  of  the  end  desired,  no  matter  what  the  way 
includes.  The  incentive  for  devotion  is  always  self-expression. 
Perhaps  in  no  phase  of  life  do  we  see  this  so  plainly  as  in 
devotion  to  a  Cause,  or  Ideal.  When  people  are  willing  to  die, 
if  necessary,  in  order  to  express  their  feeling  toward  a  subject, 
Love  has  indeed  ruled  the  day,  and  they  have  found  themselves 
in  spirit,  if  not  in  truth.  Love  moods  may  be  made  most  use- 

296 


LOVE    AND    HOME 

ful  when  spent  in  enthusiastic  effort, — for  a  mood  is  but  a  state 
of  feeling.  Every  mother  experiences  this  kind  of  emotion 
instinctively  and  naturally  in  her  willingness  to  give  herself 
for  her  child.  The  effort  now  should  be  to  carry  this  mother- 
feeling  out  into  the  world,  encouraging  love  of  principle,  love 
of  neighbors,  and  love  of  humanity,  through  understanding 
that  the  only  real  expression  of  the  better  self  includes  all 
these.  Devoting  one's  self  passionately  and  systematically  to 
those  subjects  that  bespeak  a  finer  order  of  mutual  intelligence 
and  understanding  must  ultimately  broaden  and  deepen  the 
love  nature. 

"The  benefits  of  affection  are  immense;  and  the  one  event 
which  never  loses  its  romance  is  the  encounter  with  superior 
persons  on  terms  allowing  the  happiest  intercourse." 

There  is  no  pleasanter  happening  in  the  home  than  the 
gathering  of  interesting  people  into  the  family  circle.  And 
when  all  is  said  and  done,  it  is  not  so  much  the  distinguished 
host  who  draws,  as  the  quality  and  kind  of  love  abiding  in  the 
house.  It  is  what  the  home  loves  best  that  has  the  profoundest 
interest  for  outsiders,  bringing  them  into  sympathetic  touch 
with  each  member  of  the  family  through  mutual  sentiment  and 
mutual  affection.  For  a  man  is  not  one  thing  and  his  love 
another.  His  love  is  himself.  That  we  allow  our  love  to  be 
one  thing  and  our  activities  another,  is  a  calamity  for  home 
and  society.  We  need  less  sentimental  expression  for  our  feel- 
ings, but  more,  infinitely  more,  real  sentiment.  A  love  motive 
that  becomes  a  passion  will  do  more  in  unifying  our  efforts  than 
a  whole  college  course  of  training. 

Love  certainly  "makes  the  world  go  round."  Therefore,  so 
great  a  force  in  all  endeavor  should  have  our  every  attention 
and  best  encouragement  in  the  home.  To  the  end  that  all 
natural  affections,  whatever  they  may  be,  shall  broaden  in  scope 
until  they  include  not  only  people  and  things,  but  law,  order, 
and  human  nature  as  a  whole.  From  little  beginnings,  great 
loves  come  and  grow. 


297 


CHAPTER  XI 

HOUSEWORK  AND  DEMOCRACY 

"Democracy,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Universe,  is  the  inherent 
tendency  of  the  Universe  to  give  to  every  individual  the  op- 
portunity for  self-expression" 

"Ability  to  recognize  and  act  up  to  this  lam  (of  equal  freedom)  is 
the  final  endowment  of  humanity — an  endowment  now  in 
process  of  evolution" 

Probably  no  one  has  ever  passed  through  this  life  without 
asking  the  question:  "Why  was  I  born?"  And  yet  how  little 
help  is  offered  that  is  directly  useful  in  solving  this  question. 
Even  though  upon  each  one's  theory  of  the  what,  why  and 
how  of  his  life,  rests  the  net  result  of  his  being.  Up  to  very 
lately  those  who  would  try  to  help  the  individual  to  find  himself 
through  any  method  of  reading  his  inner  forces  and  tendencies, 
were  condemned  as  witches,  or  liars.  And  yet  is  there  more 
guess-work  about  the  honest  psychic,  who  through  natural  gift, 
study  and  experience,  tries  to  aid  one  along  on  his  path,  than 
is  found  with  the  doctor,  for  instance,  who  thinks  possibly  this 
the  right  medicine  to  give  and  so  convincingly  tries  it;  or  the 
scientist  who  believing  he  has  discovered  a  law,  formulates  it 
for  the  use  of  the  people?  Is  not  the  same  suspension  of  judg- 
ment necessary  here  as  elsewhere?  For  the  facts  are  not  all 
in.  The  idea  that  some  men  can  read  for  others,  is  no  more  to 
be  condemned  than  that  some  can  think,  or  see,  for  others.  It  is 
not  the  character  reader  that  society  should  condemn,  but  our 
ignorance  in  not  knowing  enough  to  co-operate  with  this  class 
of  workers ;  and  not  be  led  adrift  by  them.  The  constant  effort 
in  trying  to  fit  "round  pegs  in  square  holes,"  is  wasteful,  child- 
ish, and  stupid,  when  we  realize  that  variety  in  form  is  one  of 
Nature's  first  lessons,  for  not  only  have  there  never  been  two 
individuals  alike,  but  the  animals,  insects,  and  stones  all  differ 
in  expression  and  design,  and  yet  fundamentally  all  are  made 
from  the  same  substance,  live  in  the  same  atmosphere,  act  in 

298 


HOUSEWORK    AND    DEMOCRACY 

accordance  with  their  species,  and  die  to  be  born  again,  in  still 
different  form. 

In  reviewing  the  history  of  the  past,  and  the  various  powers 
of  comparison,  we  find  that  a  special  tendency  exists  in  the  soul 
of  each.  A  tendency  to  express  both  one's  kind,  and  one's 
particular  being.  Each  man  has  instincts  and  talents  to  be 
matured  in  the  light  of  reason,  and  his  highest  obligation  to 
himself  and  his  fellows  is  to  become  as  great  as  he  inclusively 
can  become.  But  how  few  there  are  who  really  know  what 
form  their  own  lives  should  take,  and  while  there  is  no  obligation 
to  rely  upon  any  decision  save  one's  own  inner  sense,  how  help- 
ful it  would  be  if  psychological  readings,  and  vocational  schools 
were  in  some  way  made  available  to  all,  as  guideposts  in  the  road ; 
to  learn  the  what,  why,  and  how  of  one's  work,  and  the  what, 
why,  and  how  of  one's  self;  to  clearly  discern  the  relationship 
between  one's  self  and  one's  home,  one's  community  and  one's 
country ;  to  sense  the  closest  of  contacts  between  one's  life  and 
one's  environment,  even  to  controlling  and  possessing  it.  To 
have  a  conviction  of  God  and  His  place  in  every  condition, 
would  be  to  bring  Heaven  on  Earth  in  one  great  HUMAN 
Creation. 

And  although  in  all  the  Nations  there  is  found  no  sign,  or 
argument  against,  but  rather  all  things  in  favor  of  man  know- 
ing himself  and  his  work,  loving  his  home,  his  country,  and 
making  an  effort  to  realize  the  millennium  as  rapidly  as  possible, 
there  is  little  in  the  educational  standard  of  any  system  [save  the 
"Efficiency"]  that  is  effectively  planned  to  this  end.  Thus  the 
lack  of  self-knowledge  contributes  to  our  common  enemy — 
social  ignorance — which  in  turn  stalks  proudly  over  the  Earth, 
breathing  a  spirit  of  commercialism,  egotism,  intemperance,  and 
feudalism,  that  breeds  the  acts  of  war,  bigotry,  and  hypocritical 
living,  resulting  in  a  state  of  repression  and  misery,  that  begins 
with  the  family  and  extends  to  the  public,  doing  its  fatal  work 
by  kindling  the  minds  in  the  cradle.  The  force  of  the  answer 
that  "You  cannot  change  humanity,"  is  as  weak  as  is  its  effort 
to  be  conclusive.  The  changing  has  never  been  tried  from  the 
standpoint  of  all  following  the  same  "Ideal,"  or  of  assembling 
in  unity  the  various  factors  required.  Life's  experience  has 

299 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

proved  that  there  is  no  particular  "ism"  that  can  be  used  in  the 
issue,  but  when  and  where  has  it  ever  been  tried  to  federate  all 
of  life's  values  ?  Man  will  not  be  driven,  neither  will  he  be  con- 
fined to  less  than  he  feels  within  him ;  but  he  is  always  ready  to 
do  his  part  in  efforts  that  to  him  are  important,  and  will  work 
with  an  enthusiasm  that  is  almost  super-man-like  when  things 
appeal  to  his  heart  and  his  reason,  and  can  be  done  with  the 
sense  of  his  own  creative  spirit.  Under  such  a  motive  he  be- 
comes able,  and  ability  rules  the  universe. 

His  education  must,  however,  begin  with  himself,  and  have  its 
first  practice  in  the  home.  But  this  field  will  not  be  sufficient, 
unless  he  realizes  his  many-sided  make-up,  and  interprets  his 
personal  home  as  a  miniature  universe,  for  about  himself  and 
his  early  habits  lurk  the  seed  of  his  future  success. 

The  new  democracy  that  is  slowly  but  certainly  establishing 
itself  in  this  country — gradually  being  understood  as  a  form 
of  active  and  practical  religion — is,  we  believe,  the  international 
school  of  suggestion  that  in  time  must  unite  the  nations  of  the 
world.  Without  any  patriotic  egotism,  it  seems  to  be  clear  that 
our  American  mission  is  great,  and  we  must  assume  it  with 
faith  and  intelligence.  In  the  United  States,  where  all  sorts 
of  people  are  assembled,  should  begin  the  spirit  of  progress 
that  ultimately  must  reach  from  each  soul  to  the  One  Great  Soul. 

In  the  past  we  have  believed  that  the  highest  of  wisdom 
and  knowledge  was  not  safe  in  the  hands  of  the  mob,  or  useful 
to  give  to  one's  unthinking  neighbor,  but  now  no  infinite  knowl- 
edge is  too  fine  for  the  least  of  our  fellows.  The  Mother  of 
democracy  would  share  alike  with  all  of  her  offspring,  and  use 
every  possible  effort  to  obtain  more  for  the  next  feeding.  The 
best  of  her  faculties  go  up  into  the  mountain  to  gather  the 
fruits  of  Creation,  returning  and  serving  them  in  such  novel 
way  as  to  be  tempting  to  even  the  weakest.  And  so  all  are 
made  to  share  and  share  alike  in  the  results  of  the  experiences  of 
others,  and  while  every  man  has  not  the  same  chance  because 
of  himself  and  his  make-up,  each  is  given  the  same  opportunity, 
and  the  same  material,  with  which  to  develop  his  particular 
ability.  And  so  the  door  is  open  to  all,  even  though  all  may 
not  enter,  and  Democracy  realizes  she  can  do  anything  so  long 

300 


HOUSEWORK    AND    DEMOCRACY 

as  her  children  stand  by  her  and  learn  how  to  organize  and 
co-operate  for  a  common  end,  but  the  secret  of  democratic 
success  lies  in  the  motive  and  method  of  working.  All  of  its 
parts  must  be  brought  together  as  a  live  enterprise,  and  not  as 
an  institution.  The  first,  meaning  a  living  conviction ;  the 
second,  a  mechanical  operation.  The  first  has  emotion  and 
interest ;  the  second  a  duty  to  further ;  and  all  the  difference  in 
the  world  is  to  be  found  in  the  result.  When  a  thing  is  to  be 
done,  the  main  point  is  to  interest  those  who  will  do  it,  and  this 
interest  is  best  put  into  action  by  making  the  person  a  part  of 
the  outcome. 

Men  are  prone  to  give  their  best  attention  to  the  exterior  of 
things.  Women,  to  the  interior.  But  as  both  attitudes  are 
essential  to  complete  and  perfect  growth,  all  action  should  be 
developed  both  from  the  inside  out,  and  from  the  outside  in, 
which  means  that  there  should  be  constant  practice  in  the  activity 
of  that  which  constitutes  the  entire  person ;  one's  self, — or  one's 
personality, — through  one's  own  created  environment. 

As  an  illustration ;  the  family  organism  together  in  the  home, 
is  a  living  committee,  all  enthused  to  the  same  cause  and  purpose, 
while  the  town  council  is  generally  proven  to  be  an  institution, 
no  part  of  which  is  in  intelligent  sympathy  with  the  other  parts. 
One  is  a  live  body ;  the  other  a  machine  organization. 

Housework  is  approached  by  the  mothers,  and  the  mothers 
here  are  all  the  women,  with  all  the  men  as  their  partners.  That 
the  home  may  be  the  gainer,  the  women  must  love  their  function, 
and  the  only  possible  way  to  do  this  is  to  find  their  best  selves 
in  the  doing.  Everywhere  we  hear  the  cry  that  the  girls  no 
longer  like  housework.  Why  should  they, — we  wonder, — when 
the  detail  of  the  subject  is  far  behind  them  in  progress? 

It  therefore  becomes  an  essential  move  to  bring  it  up  to  the 
standard,  by  proving  that  all  that  is  worth  while  in  life,  may  be 
found  in  the  manner  of  doing. 

To  give  one's  whole  self  something  worth  while,  in  a  sense  of 
absolute  freedom,  the  way  to  work,  is  to  make  it  play,  by  as- 
sembling all  sides  of  one's  make-up.  For  after  all,  there  is  noth- 
ing but  work  that  truly  brings  joy  to  the  living.  To  accom- 
plish great  deeds,  and  to  grow  by  the  way,  is  the  only  permanent 

301 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

pleasure.  And  as  for  the  lower  and  higher  tasks,  there  is  no 
such  thing  in  conception.  It's  the  way  one  works,  that  tells 
the  tale  of  culture  and  good  breeding.  To  scrub  the  kettle,  or 
pick  the  rose,  is  exactly  the  same  in  value.  The  only  difference 
is  the  motive  in  each,  and  the  perfection  with  which  one  does  it. 
To  gradually  work  from  the  cruder  way  to  the  finest  methods 
of  doing,  from  the  low  and  rough  to  the  middle  degree,  on  up 
to  the  best  operation,  is  the  way  to  progress  and  gain  as  you  go, 
in  the  midst  of  the  Commonest  labor.  Testing  each  step  in  the 
light  of  the  whole,  with  an  Ideal  ever  before  one,  making  of  all 
a  science  and  art,  and  being  the  thing  that  you  further.  Gather- 
ing information  from  every  source  you  are  able,  and  working 
with  heart  and  mind  to  develop  that  which  is  started.  Feeling 
a  close  relationship  to  every  kind  of  home-maker,  and  helping 
her  who  would  keep  the  house,  to  know  all  parts  in  the  contact. 
Working  together  at  every  stage  to  prove  the  value  of  combine. 
Showing  the  many  housekeepers  how  best  to  accomplish  their 
duties,  by  bringing  forth  in  abundance,  results  of  personal  merit. 
For  the  truly  progressive  home  is  akin  to  democracy's  method, 
and  the  God  of  both  stirs  them  each  to  interpret  themselves  in 
action.  The  home  and  the  business  of  every  day,  is  the  religion 
of  the  future,  where  no  inherited  noble  birth,  or  caste,  shall 
take  possession,  but  a  free,  frank  public  conscience  will  move 
all  things  to  solution.  And  the  pulling  together  shall  bring 
advance;  the  kind  that  has  only  been  dreamed  of.  Tradition, 
conquest,  and  bigotry  will  go  back  in  their  holes  forever.  For 
the  home  of  the  new  democracy  will  nourish  no  one  of  this  triune. 
The  public  will  then  unload  itself  of  deceptive,  benevolent  feudal- 
ism, and  guide  its  citizens  on  to  the  goal  through  playful  and 
living  enterprise ;  we  know  no  factor  in  education  as  strong  as 
that  of  amusement.  It  breathes  and  bespeaks  a  friendship  for 
all,  disregarding  the  program  of  conquest.  For  the  flag  of 
this  wonderful  country  is  a  symbol  to  live,  not  to  die  for ;  where 
each  must  be  helped  to  find  love  and  his  work,  and  through  these 
will  come  pleasure  and  Freedom.  Housework,  and  the  homes 
of  the  future  will  prove  the  school  for  such  purpose.  And  as 
women  and  men  shall  make  these  fine,  so  both  in  the  nation 
are  needed.  The  new  progressive  idealism  shows  Democracy 

302 


HOUSEWORK   AND    DEMOCRACY 

as  a  Religion,  where  men  and  women  guided  by  God,  united, 
shall  work  for  its  issues. 

ADDENDA 

A  list  of  some  of  the  efficient  machines,  devices,  and  utensils 
tested  and  approved  by  the  Housekeeping  Experiment  Station, 
Colonia,  N.  J. 

Also  a  partial  list  of  a  few  superior  foods,  and  other  home- 
making  essentials. 

Automatic  Electric  Stove  and  Fireless  Cooker. 

Copeman  Electric  Stove  Company,  Flint,  Mich. 

Gas  Stove  and  Fireless  Cooker  Combination. 

Chambers  Manufacturing  Company,  Shelbyville,  Ind. 

El  Cooko  and  El  Bako. 

Pacific  Electric  Heating  Company,  New  York  City. 

Table  Disc  Stove. 

Cutler-Hammer   Manufacturing   Company,   50   Church 
Street,  New  York  City. 

Table  Disc. 

Simplex   Electric    Heating    Company,    120   West    32d 
Street,  New  York  City. 

Hughes  Electric  Plate  Stove. 
Chicago,  111. 

Ideal  Fireless  Cooker. 
Steam  Cooker. 

Toledo  Steam  Cooker  Company,  Toledo,  Ohio. 
Caloric  Fireless  Cooker. 

Grand  Central  Palace,  New  York  City. 
Pyro  Alcohol  Marine  Stoves,  Alcohol  Radiator  and  Lamps. 

The  Alcohol   Utilities   Company,   40   Exchange   Place, 

New  York  City. 
Small  Alcohol  Stoves. 

Manning,  Bowman  &  Company,  200  Fifth  Avenue,  New 
York  City,  or  Meriden,  Conn. 
303 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

Heat  and  Odor  Extinguisher.     (Hood  for  Stove.) 

Sanitary  Homes  Company,  275  Morris  Ave.,  Elizabeth, 

N.  J. 
Garbage  Incinerite. 

American  Incinerite  Company,  150  W.  22d  Street,  New 

York  City. 
Climax  Garbage  Burner. 

Long-Landreth  Company,  New  Brunswick,  N.  J. 

Instantaneous  Hot  Water  Urn. 

Cutler-Hammer  Manufacturing   Company,   50   Church 
Street,  New  York  City. 

Ruud  Hot  Water  Heater. 

Ruud   Manufacturing  Company,  81   Fulton   St.,   New 

York  City. 
Heller's  Improved  Hot  Water  Heater. 

144  Pierpont  St.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Steiner  Family  Motor. 

Steiner  Manufacturing  Company,  14th  &  Warren  Sts., 
St.  Louis,  Mo.      (May  be  connected  with  almost  any 
device  that  requires  power  in  operating.) 
Coffee  Mill, 
Ice-Cream  Freezer, 
Bread  and  Cake  Machine, 
Mangle, 
Grater, 

Meat  Chopper, 
Egg  Whip,  etc. 
Scrubbing,  Renovating   and   Floor  Polishing   Machine,  Rug 

Cleaning. 

Kelly  Electric  Machine  Company,  1407  West  Ave.,  Buf- 
falo, N.  Y. 

Floor  Polisher. 

Vacuum  Sales  Company,  251  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York 

City. 

Howard  Dustless  Duster. 
Boston,  M!ass. 

304 


HOUSEWORK    AND    DEMOCRACY 

Imperial  Kitchen  Elevator  and  Ice-Box. 

Imperial  Manufacturing  Company,  Williamsport,  Pa. 
The  Ideal  Regitherm.     (To  regulate  furnace  temperature.) 

American  Radiator  Company,  104  W.  42d  St.,  New  York 
City. 

The  Judd  Washing  Machine  and  Mangle. 

The  Judd  Laundry  Company,  People's  Gas  Bldg.,  Chi- 
cago, 111. 

The  Easy.     (Hand  and  electric.) 

Dodge  &  Zuill,  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

The  Arora  Quality.     (Hand  and  electric.) 

The  Arora  Company,  501  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City. 
A  Small  Bath  Room  Washing  Machine. 

The  Cunneen  Manufacturing  Co.,  White  Plains,  N.  Y. 
Sanitary  Toilet  Tongs  and  "All  Off"  Paper. 

R.  H.  Macy  &  Company,  New  York  City. 

The  Hessler  "Baby  Washer." 

H.  E.  Hessler  &  Company,  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

Small  Gas  Mangle. 

Steiner  Manufacturing  Company,  14th  &  Warren  Sts., 

St.  Louis,  Mo. 
A  Good  Bell  Washer  for  Rinsing,  etc. 

From  any  shop. 

An  Adjustable  Bell  Washer  for  Sanitary  Tub. 
Dodge  &  Zuill,  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

Clear  White  Washer.     (Electric.) 
Portable  Wringer. 

Steiner  Manufacturing  Company,  14th  &  Warren  Sts., 

St.  Louis,  Mo. 
Ever  Ready  Clothes  Line  Holder. 

Atwater  Specialties  Company,  335  Broadway,  New  York 

City. 
Simplex  Electric  Iron. 

Simplex  Electric  Heating  Company,  120  W.  32d  St., 
New  York  City. 

305 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

Hotpoint  Electric  Iron. 

Pacific  Electric  Heating  Company,  47  West  Street,  New 
York  City. 

Electric  Iron. 

Cutler-Hammer  Manufacturing  Company,   50   Church 
Street,  New  York  City. 

Vulcan  Gas  Iron. 

P.  S.  Gas  Company. 

Electro  Silver  Clean  Pan. 

The  Frank  A.  Rolling  Company,  255  N.  5th  Street, 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Chafing  Dish.     (Electric  wire  in  handle.) 

Westinghouse    Electric    &    Manufacturing    Company, 
165  Broadway,  New  York  City. 

Table  Grill  and  Griddle. 

General  Electric  Company,  30  Church  Street,  New  York 
City. 

Waffle  Iron. 

Simplex  Electric  Heating  Company,  120  W.  32d  Street, 
New  York  City. 

Cadillac  Stove  and  Toaster. 

Cadillac  Manufacturing  Company,  Cadillac,  Mich. 
Nursery  Milk  Warmer. 

Simplex  Electric  Heating  Company,  120  W.  32d  Street, 
New  York  City. 

Luminous  Radiator. 

Pacific  Electric  Heating  Company,  New  York  City. 
Bissell  Motor  for  Sewing  Machine. 

F.  Bissell  Manufacturing  Company,  Toledo,  Ohio. 
Vacuum  Cleaner — Hoover,  Jr. 

Hoover  Suction  Sweeper  Company,  New  Berlin,  Ohio. 
Bissell  Vacuum  Cleaner. 

F.  Bissell  Manufacturing  Company,  Toledo,  Ohio. 
Sweeper  Vacuum. 

Boston,  Mass. 

306 


HOUSEWORK    AND    DEMOCRACY 

Duplexo. 

Vacuum  Cleaner  Company,  1193  Broadway,  New  York 
City. 

Nevernick  Electric  Dish  Washer. 

Domestic  Utilities  Company,  145  Broadway,  New  York 
City. 

"Table  Butler." 

McGraw  Manufacturing  Company,  McGraw,  N.  Y. 

Silver  Table  Butler. 

International  Silver  Company,  Meriden,  Conn. 
"Dumb  Butler."     (Side  table.) 

McGraw  Manufacturing  Company,  McGraw,  N.  Y. 

"Dumb  Butler."     (In  silver  and  glass.) 

International  Silver  Company,  Meriden,  Conn. 

Paper  Napkins  and  Towels. 

Dennison  Manufacturing  Company,  5th  Ave.  &  26th  St., 
New  York  City. 

Paper  Plates  and  Table  Cloths. 

Dennison  Manufacturing  Company,  5th  Ave.  &  26th  St., 

New  York  City. 
Paper  Plates  and  Parchment  Covers.     (Separate.) 

Vernon  Bros.,  66  Duane  Street,  New  York  City. 

Paper  Towels  (roller),  Dishcloths,  Napkins,  etc. 

Scott  Paper  Company,  7th  &  Glenwood  Avenues,  Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 
Paper  Bags  for  Cooking — Soyer  Kooker  Bag. 

James  Spicer  &  Sons,  50  Upper  Thames  Street,  Lon- 
don, England. 
Ever  Ready  Nutmeg  Grater. 

Hardware  Specialty  Company,  Chicago,  111. 
Roasting  Pan.      (Cream  City.) 

Gender,  Paeschke  &  Frey,  Milwaukee,  Wis. 

Paper  Garbage  Bags. 

D.  S.  Walton  &  Company,  132  Franklin  Street,  New 
York  City. 

307 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC   ENGINEERING 

Taylor  Fresh  Butter  Pan.     (Needs  ample  amount  fresh  rich 
cream.) 

Taylor  Fresh  Butter  Pan  Company,  476  Philadelphia 

Bourse,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Sanitary  Crystal  Glass  Ice-Cream  Freezer. 

The  Consolidated  Manufacturing  Company,  Hartford, 

Conn. 
Egg  and  Cream  Whip.     (Fries.) 

Lewis  &  Conger,  6th  Ave.  &  45th  St.,  New  York  City. 
Fireless  Cooker  Thermometer. 

O.  T.  Weidman,  3416  2d  Ave.,  Minneapolis,  Minn. 
Thermometers  for  Ovens,  etc. 

Taylor  Instrument  Company,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 
Christy  Kitchen  Spatula. 

Christy  Knife  Company,  Fremont,  Ohio. 
Thermos  Dishes. 

Coston  Supply  Company,  £4  Water  Street,  New  York 

City. 
Thermos  Food  and  Drink  Containers. 

Thermos  Bottle  Company,  210  5th  Ave.,  New  York  City. 
Dim-a-lite  Electric  Lamp. 

Attracto  Company,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Sectional  Kitchen  Cabinet. 

Janes  &  Kirtland  Company,  135  W.  44th  Street,  New 

York  City. 
Ice-Cracker. 

Sutherland  &  Marvin,  41  Cortlandt  Street,  New  York 

City. 
Quaker  City  Mills. 

A.  W.  Straub  &  Company,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Dilver  Colander. 

Dilver  Manufacturing  Company,  St.  Paul,  Minn. 
Rapid  Lemon  and  Orange  Press. 

Whitehall,  Tatem  &  Company,  New  York  City. 
Electric  or  Hand  Bread  Machine. 

Sharpless  Bread  Company,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


HOUSEWORK  AND  DEMOCRACY 

P.  M.  Self  Cooker. 

Phaeler  &  Company,  2d  Ave.  &  27th  St.,  New  York 
City. 

Simplex  Strainer  and  Seeding  Press. 
Simplex  Saucepan  Supporter. 

The   4   S   Food  Press   Company,   217   Quincy    Street, 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Wear-Proof  Door  Mat. 

Wear-Proof  Mat  Company,  18  E.  17th  Street,  New  York 
City. 

Wilde's  Ship  Linoleum. 

Joseph  Wilde  &  Company,  366  5th  Avenue,  New  York 
City. 

Paint  Used  for  Interior  Work. 

National  Lead  Company,  111  Broadway,  New  York  City. 

Interior  Decorators.      (Kitchen  specialties.) 

Bowdoin  &  Manley,  546  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City. 

Blakeslee  Serving  Table. 

Blakeslee  Manufacturing  Company,  4025  Chestnut  St., 
Kansas  City,  Mo. 

The  Montclair  Refrigerator. 

Montclair   Refrigerator    Company,    Woolworth   Bldg., 
New  York  City. 

Automatic  Household  Refrigerator. 

Westerberg  &  Williams,  Woolworth  Bldg.,  New  York 
City. 

Tahara  Automatic  Silver  Burnishing  Machine. 

Tahara  Company  of  America,  Glenwood  Avenue  and  2d 
Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Foods  under  "Premier"  Label — Molasses,  Brown  Rice,  etc. 
Francis  H.  Leggett  &  Company,  New  York  City. 

Sylmar  Brand  Olive  Oil. 

Los  Angeles  Olive  Growers'  Association,  California. 
Acker,  Merrall  &  Condit  Company,  New  York  City. 
309 


PRINCIPLES    OF    DOMESTIC    ENGINEERING 

Sun  Dried  Fruits, 

Olive  Oil, 

Honey, 

Vegetable  Gelatine,  etc. 

Otto  Cargue,  1605  Magnolia  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

Ripe  Olives. 

American  Olive  Growers'  Association,  Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

100  Hudson  Street,  New  York  City 
Grant's  Hygienic  Crackers. 

Hygienic  Health  Food  Company,  Oakland,  Cal. 

Acker,  Merrall  &  Condit  Company,  New  York  City. 

Knackerbrod. 

F.  Kindt  Company   (Bakery),  1015  Atlantic  Avenue, 

Brooklyn. 
Unbleached  Nuts. 

L.  Biggio,  128  Park  Place,  New  York  City. 

Belle  Mead  Sweets. 

Trenton,  N.  J. 
Whole  Wheat  Macaroni. 

P.  Daussa  &  Company,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
Unsulphured  Molasses. 

Boston  Molasses  Company,  Boston,  Mass. 

Raw  Peruvian  Sugar. 

W.  R.  Grace  &  Company,  7  Hanover  Square,  New  York 

City. 
Wheatsworth. 

F.  H.  Bennett  Biscuit  Company,  139  Ave.  D,  New  York 

City. 
Cranberries. 

Joseph  White  Company,  New  Lisbon,  N.  J. 
Grape  Juice. 

Boericke  &  Tafel,  New  York  and  Philadelphia. 


310 


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